Someone Finally Shook the Satoshi Suitcase: 30 BTC Moves After 15-Year Nap 🧳

A dormant Bitcoin address labeled "1KV47" moved 30 BTC, valued at roughly $1.88 million, on Saturday for the first time in almost 15 years, according to blockchain data shared by Galaxy Research. The address originally received the funds in August 2011 and is among 39,069 listed in a New York lawsuit filed by a plaintiff identified as "Noah Doe" and two Wyoming-based companies that are seeking ownership of dormant Bitcoin holdings. The case is positioned to test how inactive cryptocurrency wallets are treated under New York's lost-property law.

The addresses cited in the complaint include those widely associated with Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and collectively hold an estimated 3.7 million BTC worth approximately $234 billion, according to Sani, founder of analytics platform Timechain Index. Dormant addresses tied to the lawsuit have shown increasing activity this year, with 31 of them moving 17,527 BTC in June, up from five that transferred 4,834 BTC in February, according to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital.

On Friday, a defendant identifying as "John Doe 33," who claims to control one of the listed Bitcoin addresses, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that a Bitcoin address is a data string that cannot be sued. Edwin Mata, a lawyer and CEO of tokenization platform Brickken, told Cointelegraph that while a New York court can adjudicate rights in intangible property, it cannot convert public addresses into "found" property simply because the plaintiff copied them to a hard drive. "The core flaw is that inactivity is not abandonment. Under property law, abandonment generally requires intent to relinquish rights, and a dormant Bitcoin address proves none of that," Mata said.

Mata added that the named addresses could represent Bitcoin held in long-term cold storage, coins with lost keys, or holdings belonging to a holder who simply refuses to move them, and that without private keys the foundation of the lawsuit remains "very weak." Separately, Irish authorities have seized another 500 Bitcoin, bringing their 2026 total to 1,500 BTC.