More than a decade after accidentally discarding a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC), James Howells has decided to cease his attempts to recover it from a landfill in Newport, South Wales.
Instead of continuing costly excavations, legal battles, and drone surveys to locate the lost Bitcoin, Howells plans to pivot towards launching a decentralized finance (DeFi) token inspired by the story of the lost coins.
This new project intends to symbolically “vault” the inaccessible Bitcoin by creating a blockchain-based token that represents the lost stash. The initiative aims to honor the legacy of the coins, even if the physical hard drive cannot be retrieved.
The Lost Bitcoin Saga
Back in 2013, Howells mined 8,000 BTC when each coin was valued under $1. Sadly, he mistakenly discarded the hard drive while cleaning his office. Today, this Bitcoin fortune is estimated to be worth around $905 million, turning Howells’ story into a cautionary example about the risks of self-custody in crypto.
Over the years, he has explored several avenues to reclaim the lost treasure, including offering to purchase the landfill for £25 million ($33.3 million) and pursuing legal permits for excavation. However, a UK Court of Appeal ultimately rejected his request, citing minimal chances of success.
More recently, at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Howells proposed an Ordinals-based token representing 21% of the wallet’s value as a fundraising tool for further recovery efforts. Unfortunately, this idea didn’t gain traction as the city remained unresponsive.
Launching a Symbolic DeFi Token
Faced with closed doors on physical recovery, Howells is refocusing on the conceptual value of the lost Bitcoin. He aims to create a Bitcoin layer-2 network with a DeFi token project that captures the essence and story of the lost coins.
The token will not unlock or allow spending of the original Bitcoins but will serve as a symbolic vault visible on the blockchain. Howells explained that no access to the lost wallet will be needed since the token acts as its representation, making the landfill a vault that remains closed but visible to all.
However, this approach has skeptics. Harry Donnelly, CEO of Circuit, cautions that the likelihood of recovering the Bitcoin is very low, and the token’s value will likely depend on its story rather than tangible assets. He considers it more akin to a memecoin than a conventional investment.
Meanwhile, Howells’ Bitcoin tale has attracted entertainment industry interest. In April, he inked a deal with Los Angeles-based production company Lebul to produce a docuseries, podcast, and social media content titled “The Buried Bitcoin,” chronicling this infamous lost fortune, regardless of if the hard drive is ever found.
