James Howells and His Bitcoin Fortune

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. Howells stated that he had discussions with several interested parties in recent months, with “a few options on the table,” and he also wants to appeal Judge Keyser’s decision.

The first step would be determining if Newport City Council is willing to sell the site to an investment and maintenance group, and then to discuss the possibility of Natural Resources Wales granting an excavation and reclamation permit. This would allow for potential deals to be discussed in serious detail.

If the potential options fall through, Howells doesn’t rule out launching a utility token or NFT related to the efforts, expressing confidence that the crypto world would support him.

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, arguing that current 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.

Howells expressed surprise that the council planned to close the landfill soon after telling the High Court that searching it would significantly impact Newport’s residents. In light of this, and having appealed on Jan. 27, Howells still intends to pursue access and stated he was “very confident” in the case he had put forward.

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

The Block reached out to Newport Council for comment.

Updated with comment from James Howells.