NY Court Halts Default Judgment in $293B Bitcoin Case After Cohen Amicus Brief Challenges Abandonment Theory

According to court filings, New York Supreme Court Judge Kathy J. King issued a stay on June 5, 2026, halting default judgment proceedings in the Noah Doe case (Index No. 153119/2026) targeting 39,069 dormant bitcoin wallets worth approximately $293 billion. Attorney Ian R. Cohen's amicus brief, filed on May 29, argued that the dormant wallets were not abandoned under New York's lost-and-found property statute and that dormancy alone does not constitute abandonment.

The court's intervention followed onchain activity from the disputed addresses. On June 6, Galaxy Research flagged 47.26 BTC (approximately $2.88 million) moving from a wallet untouched since June 17, 2011—a dormancy period exceeding 15 years. The same day, another 25 BTC redemption tied to the case registered onchain activity, and on June 2, a separate wallet dormant since March 2011 transferred 35.55 BTC. These movements directly contradicted the plaintiff's core claim that the wallets had been abandoned.