James Howells, who lost 8,000 Bitcoins in a landfill, now seeks to buy the entire site before it’s capped.
A man who accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins—now worth over $780 million—is making a last-ditch attempt to reclaim his fortune. With Newport City Council set to permanently close and cap the landfill site where the drive was dumped, James Howells has proposed buying the entire plot before his digital treasure is lost forever.
Howells, a former crypto miner, has been fighting for years to excavate the site and recover the hard drive he discarded in 2013. A high court ruling earlier this year appeared to crush his hopes, but now, with the council planning to repurpose the land for a solar farm, he sees a final opportunity.
Embed from Getty Images“If Newport City Council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is,'” Howells said, adding that he has already spoken to his investment partners about financing a buyout.
Previous reports suggested that Howells and his backers were prepared to spend $13 million on a three-year excavation project. However, outright purchasing the site could cost significantly more—though it would spare the council the costly process of capping the landfill, which involves multiple layers of aggregates, barriers, and pipework.
Newport Council has already secured planning permission to convert the site into a solar farm, using renewable energy to power its fleet of electric bin lorries. Howells’ proposal directly clashes with these plans, setting up a potential standoff between a desperate Bitcoin treasure hunter and a city government determined to move forward.
While Howells refuses to give up, experts warn that even if he manages to dig up the drive, the chances of successfully recovering his lost fortune remain slim. Yet, with hundreds of millions at stake, the question looms—will Newport Council sell, or will this buried Bitcoin fortune be lost to history forever?
