Twelve years after by chance throwing away a tough drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC), James Howells is abandoning his long-running effort to excavate it from a Newport landfill. As an alternative, he plans to launch a brand new token impressed by the misplaced cash.
Howells, whose quest included legal battles, drone surveys and a 25-million British pound supply ($33.3 million) to purchase the landfill outright, instructed Cointelegraph he’s shifting focus from bodily restoration to a blockchain-backed venture.
Relatively than attempting to dig up the stash, he goals to show the story of the misplaced Bitcoin right into a DeFi token — symbolically “vaulting” what can now not be accessed.
The misplaced laborious drive that launched a 12-year treasure hunt
In 2013, Howells mistakenly tossed the drive whereas tidying his workplace in Newport, South Wales. He had mined the 8,000 BTC when every coin was price lower than $1. At the moment, the misplaced stash is price about $905 million, and his story has develop into a cautionary story for anybody who self-custodies their crypto.
Over time, Howells has proposed a spread of options, from funding an excavation with non-public capital to proposing to purchase the Newport landfill outright.
In March 2025, the UK Courtroom of Attraction rejected Howells’ bid for a permit to excavate the landfill, with Choose Christopher Nugee ruling there was “no actual prospect of success” within the case.
At Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Howells floated an Ordinals-based token representing 21% of the pockets’s worth to fund a possible dig, with tokenholders incomes a reduce if restoration succeeded. That idea, too, was shelved after town remained silent.
“They’d the prospect to have interaction and negotiate with me on favorable phrases for 10 years,” Howells instructed Cointelegraph. “What else would you like me to strive? Shall I increase a military and march on the King himself?”
With the door to excavation closed, Howells says he’s giving up on finishing the dig, however not on the Bitcoin.
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‘The final word vault’
With the door to excavation closed, Howells is pivoting as soon as once more. Relatively than get well the 8,000 BTC buried in a landfill, Howells instructed Cointelegraph he plans to launch a DeFi-focused layer-2 community constructed on Bitcoin.
The token is not going to be backed by spendable Bitcoin, however by the thought of the misplaced cash, making the misplaced laborious drive a symbolic vault. “We gained’t must entry the 8,000 Bitcoin pockets as a result of the brand new token is a illustration of it — that’s the entire level,” he stated. “The landfill turns into a vault nobody can open, however everybody can see.”
Nonetheless, not everybody shares this view. Harry Donnelly, founder and CEO of Circuit, instructed Cointelegraph that there is a “very low likelihood” of recovering the funds.
“You’d need to multiply the very low likelihood of recovering the Bitcoin by the low likelihood the token can be acknowledged as a legitimate declare, after which by the excessive worth of the Bitcoin. That leaves some residual worth, however that’s not what it should commerce on. It should commerce on narrative,” he stated. “It’s higher seen as a memecoin than an actual funding.”
Nonetheless, Howells’ ongoing saga hasn’t been misplaced on the leisure business. In April, he signed a cope with Los Angeles–primarily based manufacturing firm Lebul, granting unique rights to adapt his story right into a docuseries, podcast, and social-first content material.
The venture, titled “The Buried Bitcoin,” goals to deliver considered one of crypto’s most notorious lost-fortune tales to the display — even when the laborious drive is misplaced ceaselessly.
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