Bitcoin: Newport man wants to buy tip where he lost £620m fortune
2025-02-10
Category: news

A computer engineer who lost £620m-worth of Bitcoin wants to buy the tip where he believes it was buried.James Howells, from Newport, claimed his ex-girlfriend mistakenly chucked out a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins in 2013.He tried to sue the city council to get access to the site on Newport's Docks Way, or get £495m in compensation, but his case was dismissed by a judge.Newport council said it was making no further comment on the matter.
The authority is planning to close the tip in the 2025-26 financial year.It has planning permission for a solar farm on the land, expected to power the council's new bin lorries.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."
The landfill holds more than 1.4m tonnes of waste. Mr Howells believes the hard drive is in an area of 100,000 tonnes."I would be potentially interested in purchasing the landfill site," he said. 
"I have discussed this option recently with investment partners and it is very much on the table."Mr Howells also wants to appeal Judge Keyser's decision to throw out his case.The judge said there were no grounds for the claim and "no realistic prospect" of succeeding at trial.He ruled too much time had passed between the hard drive being lost and the claim being brought.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is often described as a cryptocurrency, a virtual currency or a digital currency and is a type of money that is completely virtual - there are no physical coins or notes.You can use it to buy products and services, but not many shops accept Bitcoin.In China it is illegal to trade or mine Bitcoin and its use is restricted in countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.