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 a substitute, 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 undertaking.
Slightly than making an attempt 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 arduous 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 value lower than $1. At the moment, the misplaced stash is value about $905 million, and his story has turn out to be a cautionary story for anybody who self-custodies their crypto.
Through the years, Howells has proposed a spread of options, from funding an excavation with personal capital to proposing to purchase the Newport landfill outright.
In March 2025, the UK Courtroom of Enchantment 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 minimize if restoration succeeded. That idea, too, was shelved after the 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 last word vault’
With the door to excavation closed, Howells is pivoting as soon as once more. Slightly 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 won’t be backed by spendable Bitcoin, however by the thought of the misplaced cash, making the misplaced arduous drive a symbolic vault. “We received’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 probability” of recovering the funds.
“You’d must multiply the very low probability of recovering the Bitcoin by the low probability the token can be acknowledged as a sound declare, after which by the excessive worth of the Bitcoin. That leaves some residual worth, however that’s not what it’s going to commerce on. It is going to commerce on narrative,” he stated. “It’s higher considered as a memecoin than an actual funding.”
Nonetheless, Howells’ ongoing saga hasn’t been misplaced on the leisure trade. In April, he signed a take care of Los Angeles–based mostly manufacturing firm Lebul, granting unique rights to adapt his story right into a docuseries, podcast, and social-first content material.
The undertaking, titled “The Buried Bitcoin,” goals to carry one among crypto’s most notorious lost-fortune tales to the display — even when the arduous drive is misplaced without end.
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