Key Takeaways:
- A Newport, Wales landfill tied to a lost hard drive containing 8,000 BTC ($768M) is set to close by 2025-26.
- James Howells’ legal attempts to excavate the site have been repeatedly denied due to environmental concerns.
- The site is approved for redevelopment, with plans for a solar farm moving forward.
A landfill in Newport, Wales, linked to a long-standing legal battle over a lost hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, is set to close during the 2025-26 financial year, according to a BBC report.
The site, operational since the early 2000s, is nearing the end of its lifespan, and the Newport City Council has planned its closure and capping over the next two years.
James Howells threw away $750 million of bitcoin accidentally a decade ago and has been trying to recover the hard drive from a landfill ever since. Today, a judge has rejected his latest attempt to search through 110,000 tons of garbage for his digital gold. pic.twitter.com/douIDzDdQO
— Documenting â‚żitcoin đź“„ (@DocumentingBTC) January 11, 2025
James Howells, an IT worker, claims he mistakenly discarded the hard drive in 2013, losing Bitcoin now valued at around $768 million.
He has repeatedly requested permission to search the landfill, offering the council a share of the potential recovery.
However, Newport City Council has consistently denied his requests due to environmental concerns.
In January 2024, a judge dismissed Howells’ latest legal challenge, stating that his case had “no realistic chance of success.”
Despite these setbacks, Howells proposed using AI-driven technology to locate the drive at no cost to the council, but the landfill site is already set for redevelopment, including a planned solar farm.
The 8,000 BTC is part of an estimated 3 million lost Bitcoin, while experts debate whether future quantum computing could recover such lost digital assets.
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