An outlandish new scheme is sparking community speculation as a company seeks to recover up to $150 billion from “abandoned” Bitcoin. It aims to establish new legal precedent regarding the seizure of lost tokens.
Investors bought the rights to a long-defunct Wall Street celebrity and began sending messages to about 40,000 wallets. These included a warning that if you did not prove active ownership, you risked a legal battle.
How to get back abandoned Bitcoin?
Dusting attacks have fallen out of fashion for several years as many crypto hackers have moved on to newer and more risky strategies. However, using this technique, a complex story emerged.
Specifically, “resurrected” Wall Street firms sought to recover approximately $150 billion in “abandoned” Bitcoin. Several people believed to be former employees of Salomon Brothers, a famous Wall Street bank that went out of business more than 20 years ago, have bought the rights to the company’s name.
These owners then appear to be looking to open businesses using reputable names and partner with external customers to gain control of these tokens.
This strange incident proceeded as follows. The company left about 40,000 wallets covered in dust in small transactions. Each transaction contained an on-chain message claiming that the owner needed to prove that the Bitcoin was not abandoned.
The company warned it could begin legal proceedings if it did not respond within 90 days. In total, these messages were sent to wallets containing a total of approximately 2.33 million BTC.
Some of these “abandoned” Bitcoin owners were clearly upset by the notice. One user moved approximately $9.7 billion worth of tokens. This has sparked a lot of interest and speculation in the community. It is unclear how many such wallets are still actively owned.
complex legal strategy
For the record, while this incident seems very strange or even suspicious, calling it a scam isn’t necessarily accurate. A representative from Salomon Brothers spoke on the record about the strategy, calling it an attempt to strengthen on-chain security.
“Securing wallets protects the millions of wallets that are not abandoned. The risks to all digital wallet owners include regulatory restrictions on cryptocurrency holdings imposed by governments to protect the integrity of the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, all wallet owners have an interest in helping resolve this issue,” he asserted.
In essence, this may be the beginning of a litigation strategy. In several jurisdictions, unclaimed property laws include abandoned Bitcoin, and large amounts of BTC are lost or disappear. Salomon Brothers aims to set a new legal precedent that would allow it to keep these assets.
The abandoned asset scheme required a lot of technical competency on the Bitcoin blockchain, and tens of thousands of dollars were spent delivering on-chain notifications. Nevertheless, it appears virtually impossible for the Solomon brothers to successfully seize their assets or win in court.
Chance of success is virtually zero
First, Bitcoin is a global currency and these “abandoned” wallets are located in jurisdictions all over the world. It is virtually impossible to sue for property rights in every state in the United States, and it is certainly impossible to sue abroad.
Moreover, even if a judge agrees with the company’s claims, the company still doesn’t have the private key. The path from precedent to financial benefit seems impossible.
In other words, this could be a scare tactic to receive funds, or the company could be trying to isolate some smaller lawsuits in jurisdictions where it has an advantage. As it turns out, these abandoned wallets contain $150 billion worth of Bitcoin. Even one victory can be significant, especially if it opens up future litigation.
However, there are too many hurdles to put it into practical use. Many of these wallets may have been destroyed or may still be in the control of their rightful owners. Bitcoin owners do not need to worry about legal seizure efforts like this one.
The post Post-Wall Street Resurrection seeks to claim ‘abandoned’ Bitcoin on-chain appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
