Man Claims Discarded Hard Drive Containing Bitcoin Now Valued at Over £500 Million

A man who inadvertently disposed of a hard drive containing Bitcoin asserts that its value has now exceeded £500 million, following recent surges in price. James Howells, 39, has been attempting for more than a decade to retrieve the hard drive, which holds his lost Bitcoin fortune and which he believes is located within a Newport landfill site. The hard drive is reported to contain 8,000 Bitcoins, which were valued at approximately £4 million when it was discarded, but their worth has now escalated to over £569 million following the recent surge in Bitcoin’s price. Mr. Howells obtained these Bitcoins, also known as BTC, during the initial period of the cryptocurrency’s existence. His private key—a digital identifier essential for accessing the cryptocurrency—was stored on his computer’s hard drive. He later removed this drive during a PC upgrade and stored it in a desk drawer. The hard drive remained in the drawer until 2013, at which point Mr. Howells’ partner inadvertently disposed of it. He has made repeated requests to Newport council for permission to access the Docksway Landfill in order to search for the missing hard drive. However, the council has denied these requests, stating previously that such an excavation was “not possible” under its current licensing permit and that “excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area”. Mr. Howells had previously proposed giving the council 25% of the coins’ value for local community initiatives, but he has since indicated that he has lowered this offer to 10%. In the previous month, he declared his intention to sue Newport City Council, seeking £495,314,800 in damages. He stated, “They [the council] are currently, in my opinion, withholding my property without my consent and they’re not allowing me to search for it.” He added, “The last time we put an offer to them to meet, it was worth £500m, a few weeks ago, and they refused that.” Bitcoin’s price recently achieved an unprecedented peak, surpassing $80,000 (£62,000) per unit, following Donald Trump’s success in the US election. Mr. Howells hypothesized that the Bitcoin contained on his hard drive might reach a value of £1 billion by the coming year. While the landfill contains more than 1.4 million tonnes of waste, Mr. Howells indicated that he has pinpointed the hard drive’s potential location to a section comprising 100,000 tonnes. Mr. Howells remarked, “There is an object in Newport worth almost $750m (£593m) and Newport council don’t want to look for it.” He further stated, “I am still willing to avert court action and have a sensible and amicable conversation with Newport City Council, but there has to be no messing around. They have to come and speak to me.” A spokesperson for Newport City Council commented: “Mr. Howells has brought a civil claim against the council for a sum in the region of £0.5bn.” The spokesperson added, “The claim has no merit, and the council is vigorously resisting it.”