Golden Finance reported that earlier this week, several posts appeared on social media stating that IT engineer James Howells from Newport, UK, has officially ended the search for 8,000 lost BTC. James Howells told The Block via private message 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 acquire 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 acquisition funds, Howells announced plans to launch a token based on Ordinals in October, representing 21% of the value of the lost wallet. According to Howells, despite the substantial amount of the offer, the Newport side has not responded to or confirmed receipt of the offer. So that's the situation: if they don’t sell, there’s no need to purchase the landfill through token sales. I am no longer seeking to buy the landfill, no longer pushing for excavation or remediation work, and no longer in dialogue with the council or its representatives. Howells stated that he has simply 'shifted' his strategy but has not given up on retrieving the lost Bitcoin because he is still the legal owner of the 8,000 BTC and cited a High Court ruling from January of this year as his basis. The council may own the hard drive, but they do not own the digital content on the drive—this 8,000 BTC legally belongs to me, and anyone in the world can verify its balance at any time. Howells said he now plans to tokenize his legal ownership of the lost 8,000 BTC by issuing a Bitcoin layer-two smart token called CeiniogCoin (INI), utilizing the upcoming network upgrade to remove the 80-byte limit on the OP_RETURN opcode in Bitcoin transactions, thus freeing up more functional space. The token is expected to launch after October and plans to hold an ICO later this year.

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