A Bitcoin wallet inactive since 2011 has moved coins amidst a lawsuit claiming rights to 3.8 million BTC worth $285 billion.
A Bitcoin wallet that has been dormant since March 2011 has recently transferred 35.55 BTC, marking its first activity in over a decade. This movement comes in the context of a New York lawsuit where plaintiffs are claiming ownership of approximately 3.8 million BTC, valued at around $285 billion, from numerous inactive accounts.
On June 2, the wallet, identifiable by its address starting with 1LwWt, executed a transaction of 15 BTC, with an additional 20.55 BTC sent to a change address. The transaction was recorded in block #952104, and at the time of the coins' original acquisition in 2011, Bitcoin's price was under $1.
The legal case, filed in the New York Supreme Court, aims to assert the plaintiffs' rights over 39,069 dormant addresses. They seek to have these assets declared as abandoned property. The lawsuit was initiated on March 11, 2026, with further details added on May 1, listing an anonymous plaintiff known as Noah Doe, alongside two companies based in Wyoming.
Under New York State's personal property law, notifications to potential coin owners were permitted through messages embedded in the OP_RETURN field. Consultant Noah Doe, affiliated with Salomon Brothers Strategic Advisors, conducted multiple "dust" transactions in June and July 2025, prompting the wallet address 1LwWt to receive a notification on July 31, 2025, requiring confirmation of ownership by November 5, 2025.
Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Research, noted that this wallet is identified as defendant #38215 in the ongoing lawsuit. He remarked that the coins were indeed not abandoned, contradicting the claims made in the case.
It turns out, they were actually not abandoned.
This transaction occurred nearly seven months post the 90-day response deadline and about three months after the lawsuit's filing. Galaxy Research noted that during the initial notification phase, many addresses had already moved their assets and were thus removed from the final defendants' list. Additionally, CryptoQuant referred to this surge of activity involving long-dormant bitcoins as the "largest release" of long-term Bitcoin supply in history.
