You can’t obtain the private key through an ex parte judgment, but you can still tag BTC with a legal flaw—this move is really shady.

A New York lawsuit is set to classify approximately 39,069 dormant wallets containing 3,799.6 million BTC as abandoned property. On June 2, a wallet that had been inactive since 2011 transferred out 35.55 BTC—about $2.54 million—after the defendant served the lawsuit to it via an on-chain dust transaction. Experts say the address is clearly not abandoned. Even if the plaintiff obtains a default judgment, they have no right to obtain the private keys, but they could potentially create a legal defect in ownership of the relevant BTC in the future; if the BTC is traded on regulated exchanges or held by custodial institutions, the holder may be required to publicly prove ownership.