British bloke wants to buy landfill in order to recuperate 690 million worth of Bitcoin

The story of James Howell, who lost his laptop containing 8,000 Bitcoins in 2013 due to an action by his ex-girlfriend, seems to be a never ending story. Last month, a judge in the United Kingdom ruled that James would not be given the right to search for that laptop with a specialist team at the landfill where it is located. Now James has found another way. He claims to have raised enough funds to take over the landfill.

Newport

James Howell, who mined Bitcoins very early on (according to the New Yorker, he was one of the first five people to do so), got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend in 2013. In a fit of rage, she threw away his laptop.

A little later, James realized that there were about 8,000 Bitcoins on that laptop. The story first appeared in the British press in 2013, when those Bitcoins had a value of around 5 million euros.

His ex-girlfriend has corroborated the story over the past 12 years, but the city council of Newport all the while refused to allow James to dig for that laptop with a team because they feared environmental damage (and think those Bitcoins are lost forever, which isn’t that surprising after 12 years of course).

Am considering purchasing a landfill site. Funding secured.

— James Howells (@howelzy) February 13, 2025

However, the value of those Bitcoins has already risen to around 690 million euros, and for that amount you come up with a plan of course. James posted last week on X that he plans to buy the landfill itself when it is up for sale in 2026 or 2027 and found investors willing to back him.

Definitely to be continued.