Ripple EX-CTO Mocks Lawsuit Claiming Ownership of 3.7 Million Abandoned Bitcoins
A lawsuit filed in a New York court in May 2026 seeks to declare a claimant known as Noah Doe the legal owner of more than 39,000 dormant Bitcoin (BTC) wallets, targeting a combined 3.79 million BTC. They reported the addresses to the NYPD and sent on-chain and press notices to potential owners, though questions have since emerged about whether the notifications actually reached the wallets that hold the funds. Lawsuit Targets Satoshi Nakamotos Alleged Stash The amended complaint names wallets attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto alongside early miner addresses, Casascius Coin holdings, and wallets linked to hackers and unidentified entities. The combined face value of those addresses runs into hundreds of billions of dollars at current bitcoin prices. Recurring debates about Satoshis alleged Bitcoin holdings and the Bitcoin creators identity have long shown how difficult it is to attribute early wallets with any certainty. Ripple CTO David Schwartz, known on X as JoelKatz, offered a dry take on the case. One post had observed that a court might one day approve “something dumb like this” and that any such ruling would carry little practical weight. Schwartz, who recently flagged a major BitLocker security flaw and shared his meme coin investing views, agreed but carved