Man who gave up on recovering lost Bitcoin in UK landfill says goodbye to $1 billion

This isn’t a good time for the man who famously lost an enormous amount of Bitcoin in a UK landfill.

After years of attempts and planning, he decided to give up on his quest.

Mostly because it’s simply impossible.

But, dare we say ‘unfortunately for him’, Bitcoin has just set a new all-time high, which means his lost BTC stack is worth more than ever.

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This is what his Bitcoin stack is worth now

James Howells is a UK IT engineer who accidentally discarded a hard drive containing the keys to access 8,000 BTC.

Bitcoin recently topped $125,000 per coin, a new all-time high for the world’s leading cryptocurrency.

So that means his Bitcoin stack was briefly worth $1 billion.

Unfortunately for him – and everyone else who lost a significant amount of BTC for one reason or another – this will likely be a recurring theme for them.

That’s because some analysts predict that Bitcoin – barring a catastrophic ‘black swan’ event – will keep on climbing.

Some even say that sooner or later, one BTC will be worth one million dollars.

What happened to James Howells

In 2013, Howells misplaced a hard drive containing the private keys to his Bitcoin stack.

Howells tried everything he could to get his hard drive back, but nothing ever worked.

In 2022, he put together a team to recover the hard drive and even sued the city council to gain excavation rights for the UK landfill he believed contained the hard drive.

Back then, Howells said he’d keep fighting until the court rejected him, which is exactly what happened two years later.

In January 2025, the court dismissed his lawsuit, citing environmental concerns and ruling that Howells’ quest had ‘no realistic prospect of success’.

And now the council has also decided to shut down the landfill.

Which left Howells with no choice but to give up on his quest – and all that money.