On August 4, reports emerged that James Howells had halted his operation to locate a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC. However, he refuted these rumors and announced the issuance of a token to secure his legal rights to the lost assets.
But I am done asking permission.
So I’m tokenizing the entire wallet — 8,000 BTC — into 800B Ceiniog Coin (INI) — 1:1 satoshi value match
• Built on Bitcoin
• Powered by OP_RETURN
• Integrates with Stacks, Runes, Ordinals
• Launching Late-2025The vault is mine, and I say: pic.twitter.com/mC3pPK3qcm
— James Howells (@howelzy) August 4, 2025
According to Howells, Ceiniog Coin (INI) will be launched by the end of 2025. The total supply will be 800 billion coins, each pegged to 1 satoshi (0.00000001 BTC).
“The goal is to create the Ceiniog ecosystem and launch a high-speed, scalable Web3 environment for payments with fast confirmation, secured by the Bitcoin blockchain and backed by 8,000 BTC,” Howells told The Block.
In 2013, the Briton accidentally discarded a wallet containing bitcoins now worth $857 million at current rates, which he mined in the early 2010s. The device ended up in a landfill in Newport, Wales.
Since then, Howells has unsuccessfully sought permission to excavate, offered the city council $72 million, devised a plan using AI, and sought to involve Boston Dynamics’ robot dogs in the search.
Local authorities denied him due to environmental and legal risks. Experts estimated Howells’ chances of finding the hard drive at 0.00000011%.
Nonetheless, he was undeterred and took his case to the UK High Court. The court dismissed his £495 million lawsuit against Newport’s administration, acknowledging that the disk belongs to them but confirmed the Briton’s rights to the digital assets.
In February, British authorities announced plans to seal the landfill. Howells expressed his willingness to purchase part of the site and continue the search, and in July made a formal offer of $33-40 million. However, no response was forthcoming.
“I am no longer trying to buy the landfill, engage in excavation or land restoration, and am ceasing all negotiations with the council and its representatives,” he noted.
Back in April, the American media company Lebul acquired exclusive rights to develop and produce Howells’ story.