James Howells, a Welsh IT professional, has shifted his focus from recovering a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin—lost in a 2013 office cleanup—to launching a new DeFi project inspired by his 12-year journey. The device, buried in a landfill in Newport, UK, now holds Bitcoin worth approximately $905 million. After multiple failed attempts to secure excavation rights, including a rejected bid by the UK Court of Appeal in March 2025, Howells has abandoned the physical retrieval effort and is now turning to blockchain technology for a new approach [1].

Howells plans to create a DeFi token that symbolically represents the value of the lost Bitcoin, without granting access to the actual coins. This token, built on Bitcoin’s Layer 2 infrastructure, will serve as a digital representation of the inaccessible 8,000 BTC. Howells emphasizes that the project is not a legal claim or a method to recover the hard drive, but rather a conceptual reimagining of the value it represents. “The landfill becomes a vault no one can open, but everyone can see,” he explained [1].

The idea builds on a previous proposal from Howells, which involved tokenizing a portion of the potential Bitcoin recovery for investors. However, this initiative was shelved after local authorities failed to respond to his offers. The new project, in contrast, is designed to be a speculative or symbolic token, drawing on the narrative rather than any legal or financial claim to the Bitcoin [1].

Critics, including Harry Donnelly, CEO of Circuit, have expressed skepticism about the token’s value proposition. “It’s better viewed as a memecoin than a real investment,” he said, noting that the token would likely trade based on story rather than any tangible claim [1].

Beyond the DeFi project, Howells has also attracted interest from the entertainment industry. In April 2025, he signed an exclusive deal with a Los Angeles-based production company, Lebul, to adapt his story into a docuseries titled “The Buried Bitcoin.” The project aims to bring global attention to the unique case of lost digital assets and the broader implications for crypto self-custody [1].

Howells’ pivot from physical excavation to tokenization marks a notable evolution in how digital value is conceptualized and represented. While the token’s future remains uncertain, the project underscores the growing intersection of personal stories, blockchain technology, and speculative finance. For Howells, the journey from lost Bitcoin to a new DeFi experiment reflects the ever-changing landscape of digital assets and innovation [1].

Source: [1] UK Man to start Token to Reclaim Lost 8000 Bitcoins (https://thecurrencyanalytics.com/bitcoin/uk-man-who-lost-8000-bitcoin-in-landfill-pivots-to-tokenizing-ownership-188983)