44 Defendants Quietly Removed as Blockchain Data Contradicts Claims The pseudonymous plaintiffs behind the controversial "abandoned bitcoin" lawsuit have quietly dropped 44 of its 39,069 defe
The pseudonymous plaintiffs behind the controversial "abandoned bitcoin" lawsuit have quietly dropped 44 of its 39,069 defendants after on-chain data proved the wallets were actually active. According to Galaxy Research's Alex Thorn, every single one of the removed addresses had moved coins on-chain since the case was filed. The 44 wallets also exposed a broader problem: the plaintiffs have admitted that their automated algorithm cannot accurately determine whether a wallet is truly abandoned.
The case, filed as ABC Company, XYZ Company, and Noah Doe v. John Does, was originally filed in March 2026 and expanded in May to cover 39,069 Bitcoin addresses holding roughly 3.8 million $BTC.The plaintiffs invoke Article 7-B of New York's Personal Property Law, a lost-property statute, to argue that after a statutory period, the coin holders must be considered absent and title should vest in the finder.The plaintiffs valued each wallet at under $10, structuring the claim to fit within New York's lost-property statute threshold.
Galaxy Digital said the defendant list is anchored by roughly 21,923 Patoshi-pattern addresses, a group of early-mined wallets long associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, holding about 1.096 million $BTC.39,025 defendants still remain active in the lawsuit, including thousands of early "Patoshi" addresses holding Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1.1 million $BTC, but analysts believe the entire litigation is effectively dead in the water.
The Digital Chamber, a lobbying organisation for the crypto industry, has filed an expert amicus brief with the New York State Supreme Court, urging the court to dismiss the lawsuit seeking to classify 3.8 million $BTC as "abandoned property."The Digital Chamber argues that old legal norms are completely inapplicable to blockchain assets, and warns that granting the lawsuit would create permanent legal uncertainty for all cold-wallet holders.
A New York judge has paused the case until a July 14, 2026, hearing.Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, concluded that "it would be extraordinary for a New York court to hand three anonymous parties legal title to roughly $293 billion worth of BTC" on a lost-and-found theory.
Sources:U.Today: Satoshi Ownership Lawsuit FailsCryptoSlate: New Lawsuit Claims Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin is Lost PropertyU.Today: Digital Chamber Steps In to Protest $240 Billion Court Seizure
