British Man Loses Case to Recover $709 Million Bitcoin Wallet from Landfill

A British man's hopes of recovering a Bitcoin wallet valued at around $709 million from a landfill in Newport, Wales, have been dashed after a U.K. judge dismissed his case.

James Howells, an early adopter of cryptocurrency, had been battling for years to gain access to the site where he believes his hard drive, containing thousands of Bitcoins, was inadvertently discarded in 2013.

Howells, who mined Bitcoin in its early days, had hoped to retrieve the hard drive from the landfill, claiming it contained 7,500 Bitcoins. He had been actively pursuing a legal route to recover the wallet, even offering Newport City Council a share of the cryptocurrency in 2021 if the drive was successfully retrieved.

However, the council maintained that excavation of the site was not feasible due to legal, economic, and environmental concerns, which prompted him to institute a lawsuit aimed at recovering the stash last October.

But in a blow to Howells' hopes, a High Court judge on Friday ruled that there were no "reasonable grounds" for Howells’ claim and that there was no realistic prospect of success should the case go to trial.

Notably, Judge Keyser KC rejected Howells’ application, stating that the hard drive had become the property of the council once it entered the landfill and that any attempt to excavate the site would likely violate environmental permits.

The judgment marks the end of a years-long battle for Howells, who has expressed deep frustration over the decision.

"The case being struck out at the earliest hearing doesn't even give me the opportunity to explain myself or an opportunity for justice in any shape or form," Howells noted following the ruling. "It's not about greed. I’m happy to share the proceeds, but nobody in a position of power will have a decent conversation with me."

This issue is not unique to Howells. In 2023, former Ripple CTO and Coil CEO Stefan Thomas revealed that he had only two attempts left to recover access to a wallet containing 7,002 BTC, worth roughly $662 million today.

That said, while the ruling effectively puts an end to Howells’ pursuit of his lost fortune, it raises important questions about the fate of lost or forgotten cryptocurrency. A report from Chainalysis reveals that approximately 20% of the total Bitcoin supply, or around $140 billion, is currently locked in inaccessible wallets.