A legal battle over who owns long-dormant Bitcoin addresses – including one tied to Satoshi Nakamoto – took another turn Friday when digital-asset attorney Ian Cohen submitted a sur-reply brief countering the plaintiffs' latest arguments.
Cohen, who first weighed in with an amicus-style opinion in May, is responding to the rebuttal filed by the anonymous plaintiff "Noah Doe" and two Wyoming firms. The plaintiffs want a court to declare that Bitcoin sitting untouched for years should be treated as abandoned property, effectively handing them ownership.
The core legal question: does New York's abandoned-property law apply to self-custodied Bitcoin? Cohen says no. In his latest filing, he argued that a long period without transactions is not evidence of forfeiture. "Bitcoin ownership belongs to the holder of the private keys," Cohen wrote, adding that knowing a public address alone does not mean someone has "found" the asset.
Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, flagged the filing on X. "Dormancy does not amount to abandonment," Thorn said, pointing out that Bitcoin can sit idle for countless reasons – long-term holding, inheritance, or simply lost keys.
Galaxy Digital published a separate analysis noting that even if the plaintiffs win the case, they still cannot move the Bitcoin unless they obtain the private keys. That reality underscores a basic feature of Bitcoin: possession is control, and no court order can crack a private key.
The case is widely seen as a test of fundamental property-rights principles for digital assets. A ruling against the defendants could set a precedent for future claims targeting exchanges, custodians, or any entity holding dormant crypto. For now, the plaintiffs face a steep evidentiary hill – proving that inactivity equals abandonment, and then proving they are the rightful finders.
What to watch: the court's decision on whether to accept Cohen's sur-reply and, more importantly, whether a judge will establish that self-custodied Bitcoin cannot be forfeited simply because it has not moved. That ruling could ripple well beyond this single wallet.
Lawyer argues dormant Bitcoin addresses should not be declared abandoned property
A lawyer argued in a New York court that Bitcoin left untouched for years, including one linked to Satoshi Nakamoto, does not belong to others claiming it as abandoned. This affects digital asset owners by reinforcing that only holders with private keys control their Bitcoin, even if it appears inactive.