15-year dormant Bitcoin address moves 30 BTC ($1.9M)
Address 1KV47, named in a New York suit over dormant holdings, transferred 30 BTC Saturday — its first outgoing transaction since August 2011.
Blockchain records show Bitcoin address 1KV47 moved 30 BTC, about $1.88 million at current prices, on Saturday. The wallet last received those coins in August 2011 and had no outgoing transfers until the weekend.
The address appears on a list of 39,069 public addresses attached to a lawsuit filed in New York by an entity using the name ‘Noah Doe’ and two Wyoming companies. The complaint asks a court to clarify ownership of long-inactive cryptocurrency addresses and to treat tokens tied to those addresses as found or abandoned property under state law. Plaintiffs copied thousands of public addresses to a hard drive and included them in the filing.
The list includes addresses widely associated with Bitcoin’s creator. Sani, founder of analytics firm Timechain Index, estimates the group holds about 3.7 million BTC, roughly $234 billion.
Activity among addresses named in the complaint has risen recently. Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, provided data showing 31 of the listed addresses moved a total of 17,527 BTC in June, compared with five addresses transferring 4,834 BTC in February.
A defendant identifying as ‘John Doe 33’ filed a motion to dismiss, arguing in court papers that Bitcoin addresses are data strings that cannot be sued. Edwin Mata, lawyer and CEO of tokenization platform Brickken, argued that a New York court can rule on rights in intangible property but should not treat copied public addresses as found property solely because a plaintiff recorded them. Edwin Mata wrote, “The core flaw is that inactivity is not abandonment.”
Under traditional property law, abandonment generally requires an intent to give up ownership. Dormant addresses do not demonstrate that intent. Coins in inactive addresses may be held in long-term cold storage, secured by lost private keys, or kept by holders who choose not to transact. Without access to private keys, claimants cannot move the funds.
The complaint asks the New York court to resolve whether tokens tied to inactive addresses may be treated as lost or abandoned property under state law.
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