{"id":36271,"date":"2025-02-10T13:30:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T10:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/?p=36271"},"modified":"2025-02-10T12:54:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T09:54:46","slug":"landfill-with-768-million-dollars-of-bitcoin-in-the-uk-is-being-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/landfill-with-768-million-dollars-of-bitcoin-in-the-uk-is-being-closed\/","title":{"rendered":"Landfill with 768 Million Dollars of Bitcoin in the UK is being closed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A landfill site<\/strong> in the United Kingdom <strong>where a hard disk containing 8000 Bitcoins is thought to be buried<\/strong> <strong>will be permanently closed<\/strong> in the 2025-26 financial year. This landfill site in <strong>Newport<\/strong>, Wales, was at <strong>the center of Bitcoin miner James Howells&#8217; struggle to find his lost fortune<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_71 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/landfill-with-768-million-dollars-of-bitcoin-in-the-uk-is-being-closed\/#Ten-Year_Struggle_Comes_to_an_End\" title=\"Ten-Year Struggle Comes to an End\">Ten-Year Struggle Comes to an End<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/landfill-with-768-million-dollars-of-bitcoin-in-the-uk-is-being-closed\/#The_Court_has_made_a_final_decision\" title=\"The Court has made a final decision\">The Court has made a final decision<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/landfill-with-768-million-dollars-of-bitcoin-in-the-uk-is-being-closed\/#Missing_Bitcoins_and_Future_Threats\" title=\"Missing Bitcoins and Future Threats\">Missing Bitcoins and Future Threats<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Ten-Year_Struggle_Comes_to_an_End\"><\/span><strong>Ten-Year Struggle Comes to an End<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The regional council has announced that <strong>the landfill has reached the end of its life and will be completely closed within two years<\/strong> <strong>, the BBC reported on February 9<\/strong>. <strong>Permission has been granted to convert<\/strong> part of the site <strong>into a solar power plant<\/strong>, officials said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>James Howells<\/strong>, a former IT worker from Newport, claimed that in 2013 he accidentally trashed his ex-partner&#8217;s hard drive, which contained <strong>8000 BTC he had mined<\/strong> in <strong>2009<\/strong>. He had <strong>been fighting a legal battle for years<\/strong> to get back these Bitcoins, which are worth approximately <strong>768 million dollars<\/strong> today.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Court_has_made_a_final_decision\"><\/span><strong>The Court has made a final decision<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>For years, the Howells have demanded <strong>permission<\/strong> from the municipality <strong>to excavate the landfill<\/strong> or <strong>compensation for the loss<\/strong>. However, <strong>in January the court rejected these requests<\/strong>, stating that the case had <strong>&#8220;no realistic chance of winning<\/strong> &#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Howells had argued <strong>that the hard disk could easily be found using artificial intelligence and advanced technology<\/strong> and that the excavation <strong>would cost neither the municipality nor the public<\/strong>. However, Newport council rejected the request, citing <strong>that such an excavation would violate environmental permits and cause massive ecological damage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Missing_Bitcoins_and_Future_Threats\"><\/span><strong>Missing Bitcoins and Future Threats<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The 8000 BTC thought to be on James Howells&#8217; hard drive is <strong>only a small part of the vast fortune lost in the crypto world<\/strong>. Web3 executive <strong>Al Leong<\/strong> notes <strong>that 13% of the total Bitcoin supply &#8211; about 3 million BTC &#8211; is inaccessible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, <strong>Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino<\/strong> suggests that <strong>quantum computers could in the future hack into lost Bitcoin wallets and put these assets back into circulation<\/strong>. Some analysts say <strong>this could put selling pressure on the Bitcoin price<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>With the closure of the landfill in Newport, Howells&#8217; years-long <strong>hope of recovering $768 million in Bitcoin appears to be largely over<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can also freely share your thoughts and comments about the topic in the comment section. Additionally, don\u2019t forget to follow us on our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/coinengineernews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Telegram,\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CoinEngineer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/coinengineers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0channels for the latest\u00a0<a title=\"News\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\">news<\/a>\u00a0and updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A landfill site in the United Kingdom where a hard disk containing 8000 Bitcoins is thought to be buried will be permanently closed in the 2025-26 financial year. This landfill site in Newport, Wales, was at the center of Bitcoin miner James Howells&#8217; struggle to find his lost fortune. Ten-Year Struggle Comes to an End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":36273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[61,11428],"class_list":["post-36271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-news","category-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-england"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Landfill with 768 Million Dollars of Bitcoin in the UK is being closed - Coin Engineer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/landfill-with-768-million-dollars-of-bitcoin-in-the-uk-is-being-closed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Landfill with 768 Million Dollars of Bitcoin in the UK is being closed - Coin Engineer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A landfill site in the United Kingdom where a hard disk containing 8000 Bitcoins is thought to be buried will be permanently closed in the 2025-26 financial year. This landfill site in Newport, Wales, was at the center of Bitcoin miner James Howells&#8217; struggle to find his lost fortune. 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