Mystery respondent challenges $200 billion claim over dormant Satoshi-era Bitcoin

A New York Supreme Court fight over 3.799 million Bitcoin tied to 39,069 long-inactive addresses has reached a key defense stage, with the anonymous respondent asking the court to dismiss the case. The filing argues Bitcoin addresses are blockchain data strings rather than legal entities that can be sued, sharpening a challenge to a lawsuit that seeks title to coins widely attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto and other early miners under New York lost-property law. The respondent, appearing as John Doe 33, had already said he is a “natural person and a real human being” with protected property rights, not “a Bitcoin blockchain address string, a digital wallet, a line of source code, or any other form of inanimate data.” The plaintiffs — ABC Company, XYZ Company, and a pseudonymous claimant, Noah Doe — are seeking ownership of Bitcoin worth more than $200 billion at current prices, while listing the claim at $10 for statutory and jurisdictional purposes. The defense filing adds to earlier pressure on the plaintiffs’ theory. About 52 addresses named in the suit previously moved roughly 34,335 Bitcoin, worth more than $2 billion at current market values, complicating any argument that dormancy alone amounts to abandonment. Pro-Bitcoin attorney Ian Cohen also argued in a late-May amicus brief that New York’s lost-property statute for physical objects does not apply to a public blockchain ledger. Industry commentary now says that even if a court were to rule for the plaintiffs, any such order would be unenforceable without control of the wallets’ private keys. The next phase is likely to focus on whether pseudonymous participation is allowed and whether the motion to dismiss halts the claim before the case moves further.