A Welsh landfill site potentially containing a hard drive with 8,000 Bitcoin, currently valued at approximately $768 million, is scheduled to close in the 2025-26 financial year, according to Newport city council.
The Docks Way landfill site in Newport, Wales, has been at the center of a decade-long saga involving IT worker James Howells, who claims he accidentally discarded a hard drive containing the Bitcoin fortune in 2013. The drive reportedly contains Bitcoin that Howells mined in 2009, during the cryptocurrency’s early days.
The closure announcement comes shortly after Howells, 39, lost his high court case against Newport city council in January 2024. The case sought to force the council to allow him to search for the missing hard drive. Judge Keyser KC sided with the council’s argument that Howells was not entitled to try to retrieve the device.
According to Howells, the incident occurred during a summer office cleanup in 2013 when he mistakenly placed the hard drive in a black bag and left it in his house’s hall. His then-partner reportedly mistook the bag for trash and disposed of it at the local dump.
The council’s spokesperson told BBC News that “the landfill has been in exploitation since the early 2000s and is coming to the end of its life.” The authority has already secured planning permission for a solar farm on part of the land, with approval granted in August.
In response to the closure plans, Howells expressed surprise at the timing. “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,” he said.
Throughout the years, Howells has made various attempts to convince the council to assist in recovering the hard drive. He offered to share the Bitcoin fortune with the authority if recovered and claimed to have AI experts with technology that could efficiently locate the drive at no cost to the council or public.
However, the council has consistently resisted these attempts. In October, they stated that excavation was not possible under their environmental permit due to the “huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.”
Following the recent developments, Howells has revealed he is exploring a new approach. “If Newport city council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is’ and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table,” he stated.
3 Million Bitcoin Lost for Good
The hard drive’s contents represent just a fraction of the total lost Bitcoin in circulation. According to Web3 executive Al Leong, approximately 3 million Bitcoin, or about 13% of the total supply, are considered permanently lost.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has suggested that future quantum computing developments might enable the recovery of Bitcoin from lost wallets, though some analysts warn this could create selling pressure on the cryptocurrency’s value.
The landfill closure and capping process is expected to take place over the next two years, potentially marking the end of Howells’ search unless alternative arrangements can be made.
Newport city council has declined to comment on Howells’ latest proposal to purchase the landfill site.
When the high court case concluded in January, Judge Keyser KC determined that Howells had “no realistic prospect” of succeeding at a full trial.
The case highlighted the council’s position that once the hard drive entered the landfill site, it became their property, further complicating Howells’ attempts to recover his lost fortune.
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