Quick take:
- His ex-girlfriend reportedly accidentally discarded the drive in 2013 containing 8,000 bitcoin.
- At the time, Bitcoin traded between $50 and $246, implying a total value of about $400,000 to just under $2 million.
- Last year, Howell tried to sue the city council for access to the site or compensation of GBP 495 million ($646 million).
James Howell, a computer engineer based in the U.K., has taken his ‘Bitcoin treasure’ hunt to a whole new level. On Monday, reports emerged that he now wants to buy the dump site where he believes the hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin (approximately $784 million in value) is still buried.
According to Howell, his ex-girlfriend accidentally threw away the drive with the trash in 2013. At the time, Bitcoin traded between $50 and $246, implying a total value of about $400,000 to just under $2 million.
The report comes months after Howell failed in a lawsuit against the council, which sought access to the site or compensation of GBP 495 million ($646 million).
According to the report by the BBC, Howell’s effort to get access to the site located at Newport’s Docks Way via a lawsuit was dismissed by a Judge and the council is now planning to close the site in the 2025/26 financial year. The report also said that the site is planned for solar plant development to power the council’s new bin lorries.
Commenting on the matter, Mr Howells said: “The council planning on closing the landfill so soon is quite a surprise, especially since it claimed at the High Court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway.”
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