Brit hunts for lost $768 million bitcoin treasure, seeks to buy garbage dump

James Howells, a resident of Newport, South Wales, now wants to buy the landfill where he believes his lost £620 million ($768 million) bitcoin fortune is still buried, despite a UK judge dismissing his case last month. 

Howells, a computer engineer, believes his former partner mistakenly threw out the hard drive containing a Bitcoin wallet in 2013 and took legal action to access his local landfill or pursue £495 million ($609 million) in compensation from Newport City Council.

Judge Andrew John Keyser KC threw out the case on Jan. 9, stating that there were "no reasonable grounds" for bringing the claim and "no realistic prospect of succeeding if it went to trial" given the amount of time that had passed.

However, if the current owners are willing to negotiate at fair market rates, Howells and his investment partners would now be interested in acquiring the Newport Docksway landfill site outright, he told The Block, without naming the partners. Howells said he had discussions with several interested parties in recent months, with "a few options on the table" and also wants to appeal Judge Keyser’s decision.

The first step would be to determine if Newport City Council is willing to sell the site to an investment and maintenance group, then to discuss the possibility of Natural Resources Wales granting an excavation and reclamation permit, Howells explained, before any potential deals and figures could be discussed in serious detail.

If the potential options fall through, Howells also doesn't rule out launching a utility token or NFT related to the efforts, saying he is "pretty confident the crypto world would have my back."

The BBC first reported the news.

Over 7,500 BTC lost

During a hearing in December, the court learned that Howells, an early Bitcoin adopter, mined over 7,500 BTC in 2009 when it held little value.

As the cryptocurrency's worth skyrocketed, he organized a team of experts to locate and recover the accidentally discarded hard drive, and repeatedly sought permission from the council to access the landfill, even offering it a share of the bitcoin if recovered. While the site holds more than 1.4 million tonnes of waste, Howells believes he has narrowed the location down to an area of 100,000 tonnes.

The council urged the High Court judge to strike out the legal action at the hearing, arguing that existing laws meant the device had become its property once it entered the landfill and environmental permits forbade its excavation.

Earlier this month, the BBC reported that the landfill site is expected to close in the 2025-2026 financial year, with Newport Council securing planning permission to convert part of the land to a solar farm.

"The council planning on closing the landfill so soon is quite a surprise, especially since it claimed at the High Court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway," Howells told the BBC on Monday.

Given this, and having appealed on Jan. 27, Howells still intends to pursue access and told The Block he was "very confident" in the case he had put forward.

Howells has speculated that the inaccessible funds could be worth over £1 billion ($1.2 billion) by 2026 and previously told the BBC he was willing to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Newport Council declined to comment.

Updated with comment from James Howells.