The UK Court of Appeals has rejected a Wales man’s request to excavate a landfill where he believes his hard drive holding $676 million in Bitcoin was dumped more than a decade ago. 

James Howells posted Friday on Linkedin a screenshot of the appeals court’s ruling, which is final. The software engineer, who mined the lost Bitcoin in 2009, has waged a long legal battle to gain access to the landfill where he believes his tokens may be buried, and he has even considered purchasing the waste site. 

But having exhausted all his options for legal recourse through the U.K. court system, Howells now plans to bring his case to the European Courts of Human Rights. 

“The Great British Injustice System strikes again… Moral of the Story: The state always protects the state,” Howells wrote in his Linkedin post. “Next stop: ECHR.” 

Howells lost his hard drive containing the keys to 8,000 Bitcoin in 2013, when his former partner tossed out the device. Bitcoin’s price peaked that year at roughly $1,130, CoinGecko data shows. 

Since then, the value of those tossed tokens has grown astronomically, however. Bitcoin was trading at $84,500 as of publication time, or more than 7000% higher than its highest price in 2013. 

Howells is one of many early Bitcoin believers whose holdings have grown to be worth a life-changing fortune. But his case also underscores a common reality for many crypto holders—the difficulties of custodying one’s own cryptocurrencies. 

In a letter to Howells, Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Nugee of the U.K. Court of Appeals said he rejected the Bitcoin holder’s appeal because it did not have “any real prospect of success.” 

Howells refuted the judge’s argument in a Friday statement, which he shared with Decrypt. 

“The British establishment wants to sweep this under the carpet, and I will not let them,” he said. “It will not go away—no matter how long it takes!”

Although Howells implied he has a lot of time to fight his case, time to dig up his hard drive is running out. 

A local council that oversees the Welsh landfill is expected to shutter the site, which is nearing maximum capacity, in the 2025-26 financial year, the council’s draft budget shows. 

Crypto exchange Coinbase has scored another major victory in its legal battles, as U.S. state Vermont dropped its case against the exchange over its staking services. 

Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, celebrated Vermont’s decision, calling it a sign of “progress.” 

“As we have always said: staking services are not securities,” he wrote on X. “We applaud Vermont for embracing progress and providing clarity for its citizens who own digital assets.” 

Grewal went on to urge other states still pursuing similar actions to “take a page from Vermont’s playbook.”

The decision follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision to dismiss its own case against Coinbase just weeks earlier, pointing to a shift in the regulatory aspects for the crypto industry under President Donald Trump’s administration.

The formation of the new SEC task force to “provide guidance for the promulgation of rules regarding the regulation of crypto products and services” was cited as a pivotal factor in Vermont’s decision to rescind its case against Coinbase.

“In light of the dismissal of the Federal Action and likelihood of new federal regulatory guidance, the Division believes it would be most efficient and in the best interests of justice to rescind the pending Show Cause Order, without prejudice,” a Thursday filing reads.

The legal troubles between Coinbase and state regulators date back to June 2023, when Vermont, along with 10 other states, issued a “show cause order” accusing the exchange of violating securities laws by offering staking services without proper registration. 

The 11 states argued that Coinbase’s staking services qualified as unregistered securities, prompting legal action to halt the practice in certain jurisdictions.

A “show cause order” is a legal directive requiring a party to explain why a court should not take a specific action, in this case, halting Coinbase’s staking services.

The legal actions were launched shortly after the SEC filed its own case against Coinbase, accusing the exchange of operating as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency.

The SEC, under its new acting chair, Mark Uyeda, has adopted a more lenient stance on enforcement compared to its previous leadership under Gary Gensler. 

Following the change, the SEC has dropped multiple lawsuits against crypto companies, notably Binance, Kraken, and OpenSea, among others.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

A White House official told a room of crypto industry leaders this week that the Trump administration wants to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible. 

At a closed-door roundtable hosted by the Bitcoin Policy Institute on Tuesday, Bo Hines, executive director of the Presidential Working Group on Digital Assets, told participants the White House is intent on acquiring as much Bitcoin as it can, according to multiple attendees.

When asked by someone in the room exactly how much Bitcoin the U.S. government might ultimately acquire, Hines joked the question was akin to asking someone how many dollars they’d want, one roundtable attendee told Decrypt. 

A White House official confirmed to Decrypt that Hines indeed made the statement about acquiring as much Bitcoin as possible, but added the caveat that any such acquisitions would be made “in a budget neutral way that doesn’t cost the taxpayers a dime.” 

The private roundtable, which followed a public “Bitcoin for America” policy summit, hosted Bitcoin heavyweights, including Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel, Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley, and Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey. It also featured three U.S. senators: Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Bernie Moreno (R-OH). 

At one point during the roundtable, a participant asked Bo Hines whether the White House supports the Bitcoin Act—a piece of legislation reintroduced in the Senate by Lummis on Tuesday that would require the U.S. government buy up to one million BTC, worth roughly $80 billion, and would enshrine into law the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve established by President Donald Trump’s recent executive order. 

After receiving the question, according to one roundtable attendee, Hines then turned to Lummis, whom he was sat next to, and said the White House plans to support legislation that puts a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into law, and will apply pressure to make sure it passes Congress. 

A White House official emphasized to Decrypt that Hines did not, however, endorse any specific piece of legislation during the event. 

It is currently estimated the U.S. government holds nearly 200,000 BTC, acquired via civil and criminal forfeitures. Senior White House officials have pushed the line in recent days that they support the government purchasing additional Bitcoin to buttress a strategic reserve, so long as those acquisitions are “budget neutral.”

It is debatable whether Lummis’ Bitcoin Act can be considered budget neutral. The bill calls for the U.S. to purchase some $80 billion worth of BTC at current prices—but plans to do so principally by obligating the Federal Reserve to hand over revenues that would theoretically be generated if the central bank were to have its gold certificates reevaluated at market prices. The certificates were last priced in 1971, when the U.S. went off the gold standard. Gold has since increased by over 6,800% in value.