Twelve years after unintentionally 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. Instead, he plans to launch a brand new token impressed by the misplaced cash.
Howells, whose quest included authorized battles, drone surveys and a 25-million British pound supply ($33.3 million) to purchase the landfill outright, advised Cointelegraph he’s shifting focus from bodily restoration to a blockchain-backed mission.
Rather 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 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 price lower than $1. Today, the misplaced stash is price about $905 million, and his story has turn into a cautionary story for anybody who self-custodies their crypto.
Over the years, Howells has proposed a variety of options, from funding an excavation with personal capital to proposing to purchase the Newport landfill outright.
In March 2025, the UK Court of Appeal rejected Howells’ bid for a allow to excavate the landfill, with Judge 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 concept, too, was shelved after town remained silent.
“They had the possibility to have interaction and negotiate with me on favorable phrases for 10 years,” Howells advised Cointelegraph. “What else would you like me to attempt? 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 vault’
With the door to excavation closed, Howells is pivoting as soon as once more. Rather than recuperate the 8,000 BTC buried in a landfill, Howells advised 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 concept of the misplaced cash, making the misplaced arduous drive a symbolic vault. “We received’t have to 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 mentioned. “The landfill turns into a vault nobody can open, however everybody can see.”
However, not everybody shares this view. Harry Donnelly, founder and CEO of Circuit, advised Cointelegraph that there is a “very low probability” of recovering the funds.
“You’d should multiply the very low probability of recovering the Bitcoin by the low probability the token could 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 is going to commerce on. It will commerce on narrative,” he mentioned. “It’s higher considered as a memecoin than an actual funding.”
Still, Howells’ ongoing saga hasn’t been misplaced on the leisure trade. 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 mission, titled “The Buried Bitcoin,” goals to deliver considered one of crypto’s most notorious lost-fortune tales to the display screen — even when the arduous drive is misplaced eternally.
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