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James Howells, the British IT engineer known for accidentally discarding a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin in 2013, has denied recent reports suggesting he’s abandoned his 12-year quest to recover the lost fortune—now worth around $915 million.
The hard drive, which ended up in a Newport landfill, has been the subject of numerous excavation proposals. Despite Bitcoin’s meteoric rise, Howells has repeatedly been blocked by Newport City Council, which has refused access to the site.
Earlier this year, Howells made a formal acquisition offer between $33 million and $40 million to purchase the landfill, but received no response from the council.
Responding to recent claims that he had “given up,” Howells told The Block:
“The story going around is partially true, but not in the way it’s being framed… I am no longer pursuing the purchase or excavation of the landfill.”
Instead, Howells is pivoting his strategy—not abandoning it. He cited a High Court ruling from January 2025, which confirmed that although the council may own the physical drive, the digital contents—8,000 BTC—remain legally his.
His new approach involves tokenizing his legal ownership via a Bitcoin Layer 2 smart token called Ceiniog Coin (INI). The token will be backed by the lost BTC and leverage an upcoming Bitcoin network upgrade lifting the 80-byte OP_RETURN cap. An ICO is expected later this year.
“The aim is to bootstrap a high-speed, payment-focused Web3 ecosystem backed by Bitcoin,” Howells said, positioning INI as a digital claim on his still-lost, but legally retained, Bitcoin balance.
