Gave up! After 12 years of searching for 8000 Bitcoins in the landfill, the British engineer announced plans to tokenize his BTC.

A British man and IT engineer, James Howells, mistakenly discarded a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins as garbage in 2013 and has been seeking to excavate it without success for years. Now he seems to have finally given up but announced plans to "tokenize" the 8,000 Bitcoin wallet. (Background: 8,000 Bitcoins thrown in a landfill! British man seeks excavation "rejected by the court": will sue to the Supreme Court, government should compensate me 600 million dollars) (Additional context: Hard drive with 8,000 BTC thrown in a landfill and can't be retrieved, British man sues government: compensate me 647 million dollars) Remember? In Newport, UK, an IT engineer named James Howells mistakenly discarded a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins (now worth over 900 million USD) as garbage in 2013. To retrieve the Bitcoins, he repeatedly attempted to apply for excavation of the landfill from the Newport City Council. However, the council long denied his request to excavate the landfill, citing environmental permit limitations, and the landfill is expected to close between 2025 and 2026, making his chances of recovering the BTC even slimmer. After 12 years of negotiations without results, last night (August 4), James Howells posted on X stating that over the past 12 years, he has made public proposals, profit-sharing plans, third-party mediation, legal actions, and even formally proposed acquisition terms exceeding £25 million, with a total value of up to $1 billion. However, the council has never provided any response, and Howells bluntly stated that the officials lack logic and leadership, believing that the official stance is "hoping I will give up." For over 12 years, I tried everything to engage with Newport City Council: •Public Proposals •Percentages •Mediation •Legal action •AND a formal £25M+ offer $1 Billion and they ignored it all. No response. No logic. No leadership. They want me to give up, but pic.twitter.com/z9IWrurojD — James Howells (@howelzy) August 4, 2025 Announced plans to tokenize his Bitcoins After multiple failed negotiations, Howells wrote in his post: "I am no longer seeking consent." He stated that he will tokenize the entire wallet containing 8,000 Bitcoins, issuing 800 billion Ceiniog Coins (INI), with each INI corresponding to one Bitcoin Satoshi (satoshi), equal to a 1:1 value mapping (as he claims). Howells stated that Ceiniog Coin will be built on the Bitcoin mainchain, realized through OP_RETURN technology, and can be integrated with the Bitcoin ecosystem, including Stacks, Runes, Ordinals, and is expected to officially launch by the end of 2025. He wrote: This vault is mine, and now I have the final say. Local government's silence and the response from the crypto community In response to Howells' public declaration, some users left comments encouraging him not to give up, while others suggested he refer to other crypto projects... But for now, it seems he has indeed given up on continuing the fight against the council, and these 8,000 Bitcoins will likely disappear forever. Although regrettable, Howells' subsequent action of issuing Ceiniog Coin is more of a symbolic gesture; its value cannot be compared to the lost BTC, but for him, who dedicated his life to finding the coins, perhaps it can provide a bit of solace. 12 years of effort to find Bitcoin result in nothing... Over the past decade, James Howells has been fully invested in the search for the hard drive and has given up his IT job. It is understood that the landfill contains over 1.4 million tons of garbage. Dailymail analyzed that James Howells' Bitcoin hard drive has been buried beneath deep layers of trash in the landfill since it was discarded, and as more garbage continues to accumulate, the difficulty of finding it has become like searching for a needle in a haystack. With the announcement of the landfill's closure plans, his chances of recovering his Bitcoin fortune have become even slimmer, and this does not even consider the possibility of the hard drive being permanently damaged in harsh conditions. Related reports 7,500 Bitcoins thrown away as garbage! Desperate British man files a lawsuit, hoping to excavate the landfill Bitcoin long wick candle $94,700 after V reversal, Trump announces a 25% tariff on all imported steel and aluminum starting on the 10th Rich Dad warns: there will be the largest stock market crash in history this year! Millions will be unemployed "Buying Bitcoin can save lives" <I gave up! After 12 years of searching for 8,000 Bitcoins from the landfill, British engineer announces plans to tokenize his BTC> This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential Blockchain news media.