PROSECUTORS WILL MOVE TO STRIKE EVERY TERROR-VICTIM CLAIM ON THE 127,271 SEIZED BITCOIN FOR LACK OF STANDING — EARLY FILERS INCLUDED — MOTION DUE NOVEMBER 20, 2026

On October 19, 2026, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn told Judge Rachel Kovner what they plan to do with the terror-victim claims on the 127,271 bitcoin seized in the Chen Zhi case. Their status report opens: “First, the government intends to move to strike all TRIA claimants for lack of standing.” TRIA is the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, the law that families holding terrorism judgments, many of them against Iran, are suing under to get paid from these coins.

All means all. The motion “will address the TRIA claimants who filed claims prior to December 29, 2025, including the Fritz and Baxter Claimants,” and the late claims the court let in on September 30. The government wants its motion due November 20, 2026, the claimants’ answers due December 18 and its reply due January 15, 2027. Until the court rules, it wants its response to the claimants’ cross-claims and counterclaims held “in abeyance.”

That lands on top of a fight the claimants were having with each other. On October 15 the 9/11 families, holding about $93.69 billion in judgments against Iran, told the court no one is first in line. Other groups say they are. The government’s answer to all of them is that none has standing to be in line at all. A separate, non-terror claim from Hassan Miah gets its own response.

This is what custody decides. The Justice Department says the coins sat in wallets “whose private keys the defendant had in his possession” and are now “presently in the custody of the U.S. government.” The families have judgments. The government has the keys. Every claim since the seizure is an argument with whoever holds them, and on October 19 the holder said it plans to argue the whole line away. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $82,845.