A Bitcoin address that had remained idle since March 2011, holding 35.55 bitcoin valued at $2.54 million, made headlines this week by transferring a portion of its funds. This transaction marks a significant development in a New York state lawsuit concerning legal title over 39,069 dormant bitcoin wallets.
The wallet, with the address 1LwWtSs7tMCwcRczQd5kVMv3xpWw6w4Sxe, executed a transfer of 15 BTC to a new address while retaining the remaining 20.55 BTC as change in transaction b90755b, which was recorded in Bitcoin block 952,104. This transfer represents one of the first visible responses from a named defendant in the ongoing legal dispute. Originally, these coins were received on March 27, 2011, when the price of bitcoin was less than a dollar.
The lawsuit, initiated on March 11, 2026, in the New York County Supreme Court (indexed under number 153119/2026) and later amended on May 1, features a pseudonymous plaintiff known as Noah Doe, along with two Wyoming LLCs, ABC Company and XYZ Company, which hold assigned interests. The plaintiffs are vying for legal ownership of approximately 3.8 million bitcoin, estimated to be worth around $285 billion, by invoking New York’s lost-property statute under Personal Property Law Article 7-B. Noah Doe is positioned as a “finder” according to the abandoned-property doctrine.
In a novel approach, the court permitted the service of on-chain messages to the defendants through OP_RETURN fields, allowing short texts or URLs to be permanently embedded on the blockchain. In June and July 2025, Noah Doe’s blockchain consultant, Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors, conducted a campaign by broadcasting 98 batches of dust transactions across various Bitcoin blocks. Each of these transactions contained 546 satoshis and included a link to the abandonment notice. The wallet 1LwWt was officially served on July 31, 2025, granting a 90-day period for a response.
Alex Thorn from Galaxy Research flagged the wallet’s recent transaction on the X platform, identifying it as one of the tracked wallets associated with Noah Doe. His commentary suggested that the funds had not been abandoned, indicating an active response from the defendants. The transaction occurred nearly seven months after the expiration of the 90-day response window and about three months after the lawsuit was filed. According to Galaxy’s analysis, numerous wallets moved coins during the notification campaign and were subsequently excluded from the final list of defendants.
In another significant development, a separate wallet that had been dormant for 15 years, 1CDSyXAQxro4FPUoqAQb81642ruqDsUiNp, transferred 20 BTC (valued at approximately $1.48 million) to a SegWit address just 13 hours prior to the 1LwWt transaction. This wallet had also originally received its funds around the same time in 2011 but has not been mentioned in the Noah Doe notice campaign or included in the lawsuit.
These recent movements take place against a backdrop of a notable decline in bitcoin prices, which have recently fallen to nearly $70,000. Factors influencing the market include the first publicly reported bitcoin sale from Strategy, a record streak of 10 consecutive sessions of spot ETF outflows, and stalled negotiations between the U.S. and Iran regarding a ceasefire.
It is worth noting that these early Satoshi-era coins were acquired when bitcoin had yet to establish a significant market price. Therefore, any sale at present levels would represent an almost infinite gain based on the original cost basis.
