Twelve years ago, James Howells accidentally discarded a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins, and now he has decided to abandon efforts to excavate the Newport landfill and plans to launch a new token project inspired by the lost bitcoins.
James Howells had previously initiated legal proceedings, drone surveys, and proposed a £25 million investment to purchase the landfill. He told Cointelegraph that he shifted his focus from physical recovery to blockchain-supported projects.
He intends to launch a decentralized finance token that symbolically 'stores' those inaccessible bitcoins.
The lost hard drive sparked a 12-year treasure hunt
In 2013, Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive while cleaning out his office. At the time, the 8,000 bitcoins he had mined were worth less than $1 each, now valued at around $905 million. His experience has become a cautionary tale for self-proclaimed cryptocurrency holders.
Over the years, Howells has proposed multiple solutions, including funding excavations with private capital and even purchasing the landfill.
In March 2025, the UK Court of Appeal rejected his application for an extraction permit, deeming it unlikely to succeed. At the Bitcoin 2025 conference, he proposed an Ordinals-based token representing 21% of the wallet's value to raise funds for potential mining. However, the idea was shelved due to a lack of response from the city.
Howells stated that although he has given up on mining, he will not give up on bitcoin. He plans to launch a new token system based on bitcoin and believes the lost hard drive has become a symbolic repository.
However, not everyone agrees with this view. Harry Donnelly, founder and CEO of Circuit, stated that it is difficult to recover these funds, and the tokens feel more like 'meme coins' rather than substantial investments.
Howells' story has attracted attention from the entertainment industry, and he has signed with a production company in Los Angeles to adapt his story into a documentary series and podcast titled 'Buried Bitcoin.'
