British man James Howells denies giving up searching for the lost 8,000 BTC

【British man James Howells denies giving up searching for the lost 8,000 BTC】Golden Finance reported that earlier this week, several posts on social media claimed that British IT engineer James Howells from Newport had officially ended his search for the lost 8,000 BTC. James Howells stated in a private message to The Block on social platform X: "No, I have not 'given up'. The stories circulating are partly true, but not as they describe." Howells explained that on July 1, he formally submitted an offer to purchase and excavate the Newport landfill to the leaders of the Newport City Council, legal team, and a councilor, with a value between $33 million and $40 million. To raise the funds for the acquisition, Howells announced plans to launch a token based on Ordinals in October, representing 21% of the lost wallet's value. According to Howells, despite the substantial offer amount, the Newport side has not responded to or confirmed receipt of the offer. So this is the situation: if they do not sell, there is no need to purchase the landfill through token sales. I am no longer seeking to buy the landfill, no longer advancing excavation or restoration work, and no longer engaging in dialogue with the council or its representatives. Howells stated that he has merely 'shifted' his strategy but has not given up on retrieving the lost bitcoins, as he is still the legal owner of the 8,000 BTC and cited a high court ruling from January this year as a basis. The council may own the hard drive, but they do not own the digital content on the drive—these 8,000 bitcoins legally belong to me, and anyone in the world can verify its balance at any time. Howells mentioned that he now plans to tokenize his legal ownership of the lost 8,000 BTC, issuing a Bitcoin Layer 2 smart token called Ceiniog Coin (INI), leveraging the upcoming network upgrade to remove the 80-byte limit on the OP_RETURN opcode in Bitcoin transactions, thereby freeing up more functional space. The token is expected to launch after October, with an ICO planned for later this year.