Twelve years after accidentally throwing away a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoins (BTC), James Howells abandoned his long-term effort to dig it from Newport landfill. Instead, he plans to launch a new token inspired by the loss of coins.
Howells, including his mission Legal struggledrone survey and £25 million offer ($33.3 million) to buy the landfill directly.
His goal is not to try to mine the hiding place, but to turn the story of the lost Bitcoin into a defi token – symbolically “vauding” something inaccessible.
Lost hard drive triggers 12 years of treasure hunt
In 2013, Howells mistakenly dumped the drive while sorting out his office in Newport, South Wales. He has 8,000 BTC mined When the value of each coin is less than $1. Today, the Lost Hide is worth about $905 million, and his story has become a cautionary tale for anyone who customizes their own cryptocurrency.
Over the years, Howells has proposed a range of solutions, from funding excavations with private capital to suggesting direct purchase of Newport landfills.
In March 2025, the British Court of Appeal rejected Howell’s bid Allow excavation of landfillsin the ruling of Judge Christopher Nugee, the case “has no real prospect of success”.
In Las Vegas 2025 Bitcoin 2025, Howells floats ordinal-based tokens, accounting for 21% of the wallet’s value to fund potential mining, and if the recovery is successful, the token’s people will get cuts. That ideaThe city was also shelved after it remained silent.
“They have the opportunity to negotiate with me on favorable terms,” Howells told Cointelegraph. “What else do you want me to try? Can I call up the army and march into the king in person?”
Howells said he gave up completing the mining because the digging door was closed, but did not do it on Bitcoin.
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“Ultimate Vault”
The excavation door closed and Howells spins again. Howells told Cointelegraph that he has not recovered 8,000 BTC buried in the landfill and he plans to launch a bias-focused layer 2 network built on Bitcoin.
The tokens will not be supported by spendable bitcoins but by the idea of missing coins, which makes the lost hard drive a symbolic vault. “We don’t need to access 8,000 bitcoin wallets because the new token is its representative – that’s the point,” he said. “The landfill becomes a vault that no one can open, but everyone can see it.”
However, not everyone shares this view. Circuit founder and CEO Harry Donnelly told Cointelegraph that there are “few” opportunities to recover funds.
“You have to recycle Bitcoin and the chances of getting back Bitcoin are small, and the token will be considered a valid claim and then through the high value of Bitcoin. This leaves some remaining value, but that’s not what it will trade. It will trade on the narrative,” he said. “This is better seen as a memorial factor than a real investment.”
Still, Howells’ ongoing legend has not been lost in the entertainment industry. In April, he sign An agreement with Los Angeles-based production company Lebul grants exclusive rights to adapt its stories into documentaries, podcasts and socially preferred content.
Titled “Burried Bitcoin,” the project aims to bring one of the most notoriously lost stories of cryptocurrency to the screen, even if the hard drive is lost forever.
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