In a desperate bid to recover his lost fortune, a computer expert is planning to purchase an entire landfill in South Wales, where he believes his hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, worth a staggering $775 million (nearly Rs 6,500 crores), is buried. According to the Guardian, James Howells’ desperate attempt comes after a 12-year search and a recent high court defeat, which denied him permission to search the landfill.

With the council announcing plans to close and cap the site, and even securing permission for a solar farm on part of the land, Howells’ chances of recovering his lost Bitcoin seemed all but lost. However, by buying the landfill, he hopes to gain access to the site and finally retrieve his prized hard drive.

‘It was quite a surprise to hear of the landfill’s closure. It [the council] claimed at the high court that closing the landfill to allow me to search would have a huge detrimental impact on the people of Newport, whilst at the same time they were planning to close the landfill anyway,” he said.

“I expected it would be closed in the coming years because it’s 80/90% full – but didn’t expect its closure so soon. If Newport City Council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is’ and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table,” he added. 

James Howells threw away $750 million of bitcoin accidentally a decade ago and has been trying to recover the hard drive from a landfill ever since. Today, a judge has rejected his latest attempt to search through 110,000 tons of garbage for his digital gold. pic.twitter.com/douIDzDdQO

— Documenting ₿itcoin (@DocumentingBTC) January 11, 2025

What exactly happened?

James Howell’s multimillion-dollar misfortune began in 2013 when his partner mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing the keys to his Bitcoin wallet. Now buried under 100,000 tonnes of waste in a Newport landfill, the hard drive remains inaccessible despite its growing value.  

Halfina Eddy-Evans, the mother of Howells’ two teenage sons, told Daily Mail that nearly a decade ago, she took the hard drive to a landfill in Newport, Wales, as part of a cleanup at Howells’ request. “Yes, I threw away his rubbish. He asked me to,” she explained. “I had no idea what was inside. Losing it wasn’t my fault.”  

An “epic milestone” is what Bitcoin reached, with an all time high of $100,100. The currency peaked at $103,000 on Thursday.

With president-elect Donald Trump promising to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet”, the digital currency is up more than 130 per cent so far this year. However, that indicates a shifted stance as during his first term, Trump referred to cryptocurrencies as “scam”.

He has also promised the country – a crypto advisory council for which several crypto companies, including Ripple, Kraken, and Circle are vying for a seat.

Anthony Pompliano, CEO of Professional Capital Management and crypto enthusiast posted on X, “There are so many people around the world who did their homework, they thought independently and critically, and they bought this thing that no one had ever heard of before.”

Since Trump’s win, Bitcoin has seen stunning growth and is now placed among the top performing assets of 2024 and as the crowning glory, the president-elect has decided to nominate a cryptocurrency advocate as the country’s SEC chair. On Wednesday, he said he would nominate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has been involved in crypto policy as co-chair of the Token Alliance.

Dan Held, a notable crypto investor said that Bitcoin surpassing $100,00 does not just represent a price, it shows that the world is gradually accepting Bitcoin as a future reserve currency. He added that this turning point represents “financial freedom”.

“We’re witnessing a paradigm shift. Bitcoin and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the verge of mainstream financial acceptance,” Mike Novogratz, CEO of US-based crypto firm Galaxy Digital, told Reuters.

Experts embrace this change as a positive step and the conviction gets stronger with Trump’s personal interest in crypto. In September, he launched World Liberty Financial with his three sons.

Although the rise of crypto bodes well, it is interesting to recall Sam Bankman-Fried, his jailing and subsequent damage to the sector’s reputation and bear in mind crypto’s notorious market volatility and the industry’s energy consumption.

Steven McClurg, founder of Canary Capital, told Reuters, “Investors may look to take profits after this milestone, which could lead to short-term dips. However, once these sell orders are cleared, bitcoin could rise even further, possibly hitting $120,000 by Christmas.”
 

Despite being the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin — whose value on Thursday passed $100,000 for the first time — has always been surrounded by mystery and controversy.

Here are some things to know about the volatile digital unit, which has soared since Donald Trump won the US election promising to make the country the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world”:

Secret creator

In the 16 years since Bitcoin was invented, no one has been able to name its founder.

It all started in October 2008, when a nine-page “white paper” attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto theorised “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash (that) would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another”.

The idea was to break free from the control of central banks, traditionally the only institutions who can create money.

But is Satoshi Nakamoto a real name, a pseudonym, or a team of people? Despite various theories, the mystery endures.

An Australian computer scientist called Craig Wright claimed to have written the white paper, but the High Court in London ruled this year that he was not the mythical Nakamoto.

Since its creation, bitcoin has been accused of being the currency of choice on the dark web for illegal payments that leave no trace. It is also the currency that hackers usually demand to be paid in during ransomware attacks.

Fallen stars

The crypto world has been shaken by high-profile bankruptcies and the fall of several star entrepreneurs.

Changpeng Zhao, formerly head of the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform Binance, was sentenced to four months in jail for violating US anti-money laundering laws.

“No wish to be CEO again. But definitely wouldn’t mind a pardon,” Zhao said on X this week, alluding to Trump’s presidential authority to grant clemency.

Binance’s main rival, FTX, filed for bankruptcy in late 2022, and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.

His downfall has smeared the sector’s reputation, but the crypto industry has continued to call for more regulatory clarity, a cause championed by Bankman-Fried.

Towards respectability

Bitcoin investors on Thursday cheered Trump’s decision to pick a crypto fan to head the US securities regulator, reinforcing hopes that the leader will push through looser measures.

Even though much of the hype around bitcoin is speculative, the currency has gained some respectability in recent years.

US financial regulators in January approved bitcoin ETFs, or exchange traded funds, which allow a wider public to invest without having to hold the cryptocurrency directly.

El Salvador in September 2021 became the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender.

But the crypto money hasn’t won over the country’s population. According to a study by Central America University (UCA), 88 percent of Salvadorians never used it in 2023.

Based on blockchain

Bitcoin is based on blockchain technology, a virtual ledger that allows information to be stored and exchanged in a secure, secret and unmodifiable manner. Each transaction is recorded in real time, in a tamper-proof register.

Bitcoins are created -– or “extracted” — as a “reward” when powerful energy-sucking computers solve complex problems. So-called “miners” validate the transactions to create bitcoins.

To prevent uncontrollable growth, Satoshi Nakamoto limited the global number of coin units to 21 million, a level that should be reached around 2140.

Every four years, the reward for “miners” is cut in two — slowing down the rate that new bitcoins enter the market, further boosting their scarcity and their value.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The crypto market is abuzz following a seismic shift as XRP, the token powering Ripple’s ecosystem, surged beyond $2, solidifying its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Beincrypto reported.   

With a market cap exceeding $135.37 billion, XRP has overtaken the USDT stablecoin ($134.17 billion) and Solana ($108.01 billion), reigniting discussions about its potential to challenge Ethereum’s dominance. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.37, marking a remarkable 25.57% increase since Monday’s session began.  

Speculation is rife about XRP’s trajectory, with enthusiasts suggesting it could rival Ethereum (ETH), whose market cap currently stands at $441.46 billion. Adding to the buzz, a recent meeting between Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has captured attention, along with rumours of Garlinghouse being considered for a role as Donald Trump’s potential crypto czar. Such a development could further bolster XRP’s standing, especially given Trump’s reported pro-crypto stance, Beincryto reported.

XRP’s resurgence aligns with renewed scrutiny of Ripple’s ongoing legal battle with the U.S. SEC. The lawsuit, which began in December 2020, has subjected XRP to intense market and regulatory pressures. Despite these challenges, XRP has regained its pre-lawsuit valuation, evoking memories of its dominance before the SEC’s 2018 classification of Bitcoin and Ethereum as non-securities following the pivotal Hinman speech.  

The Ripple case has unveiled internal SEC debates through the so-called “Hinman emails,” revealing disagreements over the speech’s implications for other cryptocurrencies. While these revelations have fueled market optimism, XRP’s regulatory status remains unresolved, with legal analysts predicting the case could stretch into July 2025.  

Sneaky Moves From Whales on XRP

Historically, significant spikes in whale-to-exchange transactions (marked by red circles) align closely with XRP price peaks, this suggests that whales tend to move large amounts of XRP to exchanges to sell near local or cycle tops.

The latest… pic.twitter.com/i0qKDs19XM

— 우민규 (Woominkyu) (@Woo_Minkyu) December 2, 2024

“Historically, significant spikes in whale-to-exchange transactions (marked by red circles) align closely with XRP price peaks. This suggests that whales tend to move large amounts of XRP to exchanges to sell near local or cycle tops. The latest spike in whale-to-exchange activity coincides with XRP reaching a local price of around $2.3. This could indicate whales preparing for potential profit-taking or increased market activity,” a CryptoQuant analyst wrote on X.

Mumbai:

The Maharashtra Congress and ally Sharad Pawar’s faction of Nationalist Congress Party have been hit by corruption allegations on the eve of the crucial state elections. A retired police officer, Ravindranath Patil,  has accused Mr Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule  and state Congress chief Nana Patole of being involved in  a fraud case involving cryptocurrency that dates back to 2018. The funds, he alleged, have been used for campaigning in the assembly election. Supriya Sule has denied any wrongdoing and called it the “familiar tactics of spreading false information to manipulate the righteous voters” the night before election.

The BJP was quick to take note of the allegations and presented the media with audio clips it claimed were evidence of involvement of Nana Patole and Supriya Sule in what it dubbed the “bitcoin scam”.  

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed the development has “unmasked” the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi and demanded replies from the Congress and Ms Sule, who is a member of the Lok Sabha from Baramati.

“I am amused that elections have come down to such a level,” Supriya Sule told NDTV. 

“Sudhanshu Trivedi made five allegations and asked me five questions and they (the allegations) are all false. I am happy to sit with him in any public forum — place time and forum of his choice. It is all false and I have lodged a cybercrime complaint. I have nothing to do with any transfer of bitcoin… this shows the BJP’s desperation,” she added.

She underscored her response with a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter: 

Familiar tactics of spreading false information to manipulate the righteous voters are being resorted to, a night before the polling day. We have filed a criminal complaint to the Hon’ble ECI & the Cyber crime department against the fake allegations made of bitcoin… pic.twitter.com/g8Selv1DFk

— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) November 19, 2024

It’s appalling that such baseless allegations are made by Mr Sudhanshu Trivedi, yet not surprising as it’s a clear case of spreading false information, the night before elections. My lawyer will be issuing a criminal & civil defamation notice against Sudhanshu Trivedi for making…

— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) November 19, 2024

Mr Patil, who had taken voluntary retirement from the Indian Police Service, was roped in by the Pune police along with cyber expert Pankaj Ghode to investigate a couple of cryptocurrency cases registered in 2018. 

The police had alleged that Mr Patil, in course of the investigation, transferred some cryptocurrencies into  his account. Ghode had provided screenshots of the accounts to police by changing the numbers — that showed lesser amount in crypto wallets.

Mr Patil had told reporters that he was framed which he and his colleagues have investigated, reported news agency IANS. 

He claimed a key witness in the case, Gaurav Mehta-an employee of an audit firm-had told him about the 2018 cryptocurrency fraud investigation. 

Mehta has alleged that during the arrest of Amit Bhardwaj, a cryptocurrency trader, a hardware wallet containing Bitcoin was seized. But the wallet was replaced by another one — allegedly under the direction of Amitabh Gupta, the then-Pune Police Commissioner. 

Mehta has claimed that the real culprits were Gupta and his team and Patil and his colleagues were arrested unjustly, It was also he who had given him the information about Nana Patole and Supriya Sule, he said. 

Patil told IANS that Mehta sent several voice recordings on ‘Signal’ — social media app — including messages from Supriya Sule requesting cash in exchange for Bitcoin. In the recordings, Sule allegedly assured Mehta that there was no need to worry about the investigation, as they would handle it once they came to power.

Another recording reportedly featured Nana Patole, inquiring about the delay in the cash transaction. Though the audio messages are available with IANS, the agency does not vouch for the veracity of the clips.

London, United Kingdom:

Bitcoin soared to a new record high on Sunday, as traders bet that Donald Trump’s return to the White House will be good for the cryptocurrency.

The digital currency passed $80,000 for the first time in its history shortly after 12:00 pm (1200 GMT).

It has been rising since Republican candidate Trump won last Tuesday’s US presidential election over sentiment that he will ease regulations on digital currencies.

“The odds that Bitcoin and crypto will become a significantly larger asset class have risen markedly,” Charles Morris, an analyst at investment company ByteTree told AFP.

Bitcoin reached $75,000 on Wednesday, topping its previous all-time peak of $73,797.98 achieved in March.

“We shouldn’t expect this bullish trend to be interrupted for a long time — about a year. The next level for me is $100,000,” Stephane Ifrah, of French crypto asset management company Coinhouse, told AFP.

Trump was seen as the pro-crypto candidate in his battle with the Democratic Party’s candidate Kamala Harris.

During his first presidency Trump referred to cryptocurrencies as a scam, but has since radically changed his position, even launching his own platform for the unit.

He has pledged to make the United States the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world,” and to put tech billionaire and right-wing conspiracy theorist Elon Musk in charge of a wide-ranging audit of governmental waste.

The previous Trump term saw corporate tax cuts that brought more liquidity to markets, encouraging investment into high-growth assets such as cryptocurrency.

Trump announced in September that he, along with his sons and entrepreneurs, would launch a digital currency platform named World Liberty Financial.

But it had a faltering sales launch earlier this month, with only a fraction of its tokens that went on the market finding a buyer.

Cryptocurrencies have made headlines since their creation, from their extreme volatility to the collapse of several industry giants, foremost among them the FTX exchange platform.

In the run-up to the election, Trump apparently became the first former president to use bitcoin in a purchase, as he bought burgers at a New York City restaurant, which hailed it as a “historic transaction”.

Bitcoin is listed continuously, including on Sundays.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Ernakulam Rural police arrested a Karnataka native on September 29 (Sunday) in connection with the alleged defrauding of ₹11.50 lakh from a Kizhakkambalam native after promising him huge profits through online trading.

Prakash Eerappa, 49, of Gulbarga was arrested by the Thadiyittaparambu police. He allegedly claimed to be the chief of a private company’s share marketing division and gained the victim’s trust by communicating through social media and WhatsApp calls. Prakash and his gang reportedly blocked his number when the victim demanded the return of the invested amount and profits.

A probe revealed that the fraudsters had ‘purchased’ bank accounts of others and conducted transactions worth lakhs, while the money illegally obtained was converted into Bitcoin. The police gathered information on the fraud by staying undercover in Karnataka which revealed that many had been cheated by the gang.

The police exhorted people to report online frauds as swiftly as possible in the helpline number 1930, to enable freezing of the accounts and to recover the lost amount.

Cop suspended

A Sub-Inspector of Kothamangalam Police Station, Hari Prasad, was suspended on Sunday by the Ernakulam Range DIG on the charge of making a social media post that was reportedly defamatory to CPI(M) activist Puthukudi Pushpan, who died on Saturday after being bedridden for 30 years following the Koothuparamba police firing incident that took place three decades ago.

In addition, a departmental enquiry has been ordered against him, for alleged violation of discipline.

San Salvador, El Salvador:

Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador.

He credits President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life.

“Before I was unemployed… and now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company.

Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin into legal circulation in a bid to revitalize El Salvador’s dollarized, remittance-reliant economy.

He invested hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money in the cryptocurrency, despite warnings about volatility risks from global institutions.

Osorio credited the US founder of the NGO My First Bitcoin, John Dennehy, with encouraging him to accept payment in the cryptocurrency.

He now has 21 drivers working for his Bit-Driver brand and has made enough profit from the currency’s rise to be able to buy four rental vehicles.

A divorced father of two teenagers, he also no longer struggles to pay for their education.

Launching bitcoin as legal tender on September 7, 2021, Bukele said he wanted to bring the 70 percent of Salvadorans who do not use banks into the financial system and promptly began plowing public money in cryptocurrencies.

To spur Salvadorans to use bitcoin he created the Chivo Wallet app for sending and receiving bitcoin free of charge and gave $30 to each new user.

His grand ambitions for bitcoin fell foul of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which hesitated to grant El Salvador a $1.3 billion loan because of its official use of the cryptocurrency.

In August, however, the IMF announced a preliminary loan agreement with El Salvador, while saying it needed to mitigate “potential risks.”

– Offered as ‘option’ –

While Osorio has grown relatively wealthy with bitcoin, a study by the University Institute for Public Opinion showed that 88 percent of Salvadorans had yet to use it.

“From the beginning… it was clear that it was clearly an ill-advised measure that the population rejected,” the director of the institute, Laura Andrade, told AFP.

One-quarter of Salvadoran GDP comes from remittances sent home by family members, mostly from the United States.

But in 2023 only one percent of the transfers were made in cryptocurrencies.

In an interview with Time magazine in August, Bukele acknowledged that while “you can go to a McDonald’s, a supermarket, or a hotel and pay with Bitcoin” it had “not had the widespread adoption we hoped for.”

He added that “the positive aspect is that it is voluntary; we have never forced anyone to adopt it. We offered it as an option, and those who chose to use it have benefited from the rise in Bitcoin.”

He also confirmed that he had around $400 million in bitcoin that is kept in a public “cold storage wallet” — a way of storing bitcoin offline.

Bitcoin’s fortunes have been mixed.

This week it was trading at around $52,000, down from a peak of $73,616 on March 13. In November 2022 it fell as low as $16,189.

Independent economist Cesar Villalona told AFP that Bukele himself had hobbled bitcoin’s take-up by stripping it of the usual functions of a currency.

“Bukele… said: there will be no salary in bitcoin, there will be no pensions in bitcoin, there will be no savings in bitcoin and there will be no price in bitcoin, and in so doing took away the three functions of money,” Villalona said.

Luis Contreras, an instructor at My First Bitcoin, told AFP many Salvadorans were simply afraid of making the switch.

The organization has taken cryptocurrencies into public schools, teaching around 35,000 students to use bitcoin so far.

Contreras says the hardest thing about training people on bitcoin “is their fear of new things, which creates a fear of technology” as well as “the fear of moving from a classic currency in the current economy to one that is totally digital and decentralized.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Former President Donald Trump has promised to make the US a “Bitcoin superpower” if returned to the White House and said that he will appoint an advisory council to design transparent regulatory guidance for the benefit of the entire industry.

But Trump, the Republican nominee, stopped short of proposing a formal federal reserve of digital currency.

Trump made a series of cryptocurrency-friendly policy commitments during remarks at a Bitcoin convention Saturday, including promising to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and creating a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile.” “I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world,” Trump, 78, said.

Bitcoin is the world’s first widely adopted cryptocurrency — it allows for secure and seamless peer-to-peer transactions on the internet.

He also warned that Bitcoin investors in the audience will be “crushed” if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected as president.

“They (Democrats) want to choke you. They want to choke you out of business. We’re not going to let that happen. And no longer will your government sit by and watch as Bitcoin jobs and businesses flee to other countries because America’s laws are too unclear and too tough and too angry and too stiff. We will keep each and every Bitcoin job in the United States of America,” Trump said in his address to the Bitcoin2024 Conference, the cryptocurrency industry’s largest annual gathering, in Nashville’s Music City Center.

Trump is the first major party candidate to address the annual cryptocurrency conference.

Trump also promised to “immediately” establish a “Bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council,” which he said would provide “transparent regulatory guidance” for the cryptocurrency sector. “I am proud to be the first American president to address a Bitcoin event anywhere in the world. If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted and made in the USA,” he said.

“We will have regulations, but from now on, the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry. People who want to make it clear and simple, straightforward and fair. People that want to see your industry thrive, not dive,” he said.

Trump also said he would end efforts by the US government to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC), an initiative that cryptocurrency enthusiasts have long been critical of.

“I will immediately order the treasury department and other federal agencies to cease and desist all steps necessary because there’s a thing going on in your industry. They want to move the creation of a central bank digital currency. It’s over. Forget it. There will never be a CBDC while I’m President of the United States. I will always defend the right to self-custody. You’re going to have a great industry, and we’re going to be fuel for your industry,” he said.

As president, Trump has declared Bitcoin “not money” and criticised it as “highly volatile and based on thin air.” But Saturday marked the culmination of a total reversal on the issue during the former president’s latest White House bid. Indian-American entrepreneur-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy is a key advisor to Trump on cryptocurrency.

Trump announced that as part of his effort to provide regulatory clarity, his administration will create a framework to enable the safe and responsible expansion of stable coins allowing them to extend the dominance of the US dollar to new frontiers all around the world.

“America will be richer, the world will be better, and there will be billions and billions of people brought into the crypto economy and storing their savings in Bitcoin. Those who say that Bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have the story backwards. Bitcoin is not threatening the dollar. The behaviour of the current US government is really threatening the dollar,” he said.

“The danger to our financial future does not come from crypto. It comes from trillions of dollars in waste, rampant inflation and open borders while giving welfare and free healthcare to all of the illegal aliens that are pouring into our country by the millions and millions and millions. It comes from printing hundreds of billions of dollars to fund endless wars overseas while our cities are like combat zones here at home,” he alleged.

Trump America under him will become the world’s undisputed Bitcoin mining powerhouse.

“You’ll be a Bitcoin mining powerhouse. You will not have to move your family to China. You will not be moving to China. As we implement these reforms, Bitcoin and crypto will grow our economy, cement American financial dominance and strengthen our entire country long into the future,” he said. PTI LKJ NSA NSA

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

London:

An Australian computer scientist who claims he invented Bitcoin is not the pseudonymous inventor of the cryptocurrency, a judge at London’s High Court ruled on Thursday.

Craig Wright has long claimed to have been the author of a 2008 white paper, the foundational text of Bitcoin, published in the name “Satoshi Nakamoto”.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) took Wright to court to stop him from suing Bitcoin developers, asking for a ruling that Wright is not Satoshi.

Judge James Mellor said on Thursday that Wright is not Satoshi and that he would give his full reasons for his decision at a later date.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)