Lawsuit dismissed

Briton not allowed to recover lost Bitcoin treasure

For years, James Howells from Newport in Wales has claimed that his now multi-million euro Bitcoin treasure is buried in a landfill site - but the Briton is still not allowed to search for it. The High Court, the highest court for England and Wales, dismissed a lawsuit brought by Howells, who wanted to argue with the city of Newport about permission to search.

The case has been a source of concern in the UK for years. Howells claims to have accidentally thrown away a hard disk containing 8,000 units of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in 2013. The current value would be around 730 million euros.

His request to the local authority to search the landfill site had been rejected several times. The reasons given by Newport City Council included the high costs, the danger to people and the environment and the fact that the disposal itself meant that Howells was no longer the owner.

High Court Judge Andrew Keyser now ruled that too much time had passed between the loss of the hard drive and the lawsuit. Furthermore, the action had no realistic prospect of success in court.