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A 39-year-old man from the United Kingdom has been blocked by the courts from searching for his $750 million Bitcoin fortune in a landfill.
James Howells lost a hard drive with the Bitcoin stored well over a decade ago and has been fighting his local council to hunt for it. He believes it’s in a landfill in his city, Newport, but the council has stated the search would have environmental risks.
The hard drive that contained the cryptocurrency was thrown out, with Newport Council in conversation with Howells since 2013. Howells claims that his then-partner had thrown it out during an office clean-up, along with his 8000 Bitcoins.
Howells has sued the council in a bid to get access to the landfill. This was tossed out, with the Cardiff High Court backing the dismissal. He was also seeking a $600 million compensation package if it was denied.
In the ruling, Judge Keyser KC said that there was “no realistic prospect” of Howells being successful, nor were there any “reasonable grounds”.
UK council claims Bitcoin hunter’s offer is a bribe
The council had determined that Howells’ offer of donating 10% of the Bitcoin back into Newport was a bribe. Another representative for the council, James Goudie, said that the drive had technically become the council’s property once it entered the landfill.
Howells claims the money could have turned Newport into “the ‘Dubai or Las Vegas’ of the UK.” However, there’s no way of knowing if the hard drive has survived after a decade.
If this was an older, hard disk drive with moving parts, it would likely be destroyed after a decade of the elements battering the landfill. Even if the drive was retrieved, it’s unlikely that the data onboard could be recovered.
Bitcoin’s value exploded in 2024. It reached as high as $100,000 before 2025, as incoming US president, Donald Trump, has backed cryptocurrency.
Featured image: Pexels (landfill, man), Bitcoin, Western Digital
