For 12 years, he’s been hunting for his hard drive with 770 million dollars worth of Bitcoin buried in a landfill. Now, a new chapter of his journey is just getting started

It looked like James Howells’ crazy story about losing a real-life treasure was over, but now there’s a documentary being made about it. Back in 2013, his ex accidentally threw away a hard drive with a Bitcoin wallet on it, and for years, James has been chasing that lost crypto, which could be worth over $770 million today.

The Bitcoin digging saga continues

After Bitcoin’s price took off, Howell realized just how big of a mistake it was to toss that hard drive, so naturally, he tried to get it back. But the problem was that the device is now buried three to five feet underground at the Docksway landfill in Newport, UK, covered by tons of trash. He tried to get permission to search the landfill, but never got the green light.

Source: flickr; Photo by archieveai

After hitting dead ends with Newport City Council, he even decided to sue them, but the High Court dismissed the case in January this year. The landfill is expected to close for good around 2025/26, and part of it will be turned into a solar farm. So now, Howell’s new plan is to buy the landfill to finally get access.

According to a BBC article, an LA-based entertainment company called LEBUL is working on a document series about the whole story, calling it “The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells.” And as Howells mentioned:

The company said the project is already getting a lot of attention from sponsors, crypto leaders, and big streaming platforms. Howell revealed that filming is schedules for this summer, with the documentary set to premiere around October or November.

• documentaries
• Bitcoin / BTC / cryptocurrency