UK man sues council after it denied requests to dig for lost Bitcoin hard drive in landfill

  • James Howell has been trying to get his lost hard drive back for 10 years
  • Howell mined 8,000 Bitcoin on his laptop after learning about Bitcoin in 2009
  • The council have denied Howell’s requests to dig due to “environmental concerns”

A 39-year-old man is suing Newport City Council for $646 million (£495,314,800 million) in damages after losing his hard drive at a recycling center containing 8,000 Bitcoin.

James Howell accidentally threw out his hard drive in 2013 during a household clearout. According to WalesOnline, Howell had two hard drives of the same size. One was blank, while the other contained his Bitcoin.

He mistakenly put the one containing the Bitcoin into a black bin bag, which his then-girlfriend took to the tip. At the time of his loss, his Bitcoin was worth around $1.3 million (£1 million). However, within three months, their value had risen to around $11.7 million (£9 million).

Howell has reached an agreement, leaving him with 30% of his Bitcoin if the hard drive is found. The remaining would be split between his backers, the recovery team, and the council.

Howell states that despite meeting a representative of the council in 2013, he’s been “largely ignored.”

“I’m still allocating 10% of the value for the council even though they have been problematic throughout,” he said. “That would be £41m based on today’s rate but in the future, it could be hundreds of millions.”

Environmental concerns

A court filing states that Howell’s hard drive is located in Cell 2- Area 2 of the Docksway landfill.

If the hard drive is located, the dig would take around 18 to 36 months followed by 12 months of remediation work. Yet, despite promises to safely excavate the Newport site and to modernize the landfill, the council have rejected Howell’s requests to dig due to “environmental concerns.”

Howell’s lawyers claim that the council have “simply ignored” that 10% of Bitcoin could bring “a huge and desperately needed investment in the local community.”

Lawyers for the council argue that the hard drive belongs to the council because it was dumped at the tip. However, Howell’s lawyers deny this, claiming that the hard drive was never intended to be thrown away.

Howell said he didn’t want to go to court, but “this is the final shot.”

The case is expected to be heard in December.

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Mt. Gox delays repayment deadline, pushes it to October 2025

  • The defunct exchange had an original repayment deadline of October 31, 2024
  • Mt. Gox said the delay was down to creditors not completing the repayment steps and issues arising from the repayment process
  • In 2024, Mt. Gox collapsed following a security breach, resulting in the loss of 850,000 Bitcoin

Defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox has pushed its repayment deadline to October 2025, adding another year from its original date.

According to a statement from the exchange, it will now repay creditors on October 31, 2025.

“As it is desirable to make the Repayments to such rehabilitation creditors to the extent reasonably practicable, the Rehabilitation Trustee, with the permission of the court, has changed the deadline for the Repayments from October 31, 2024 (Japan Standard Time) to October 31, 2025 (Japan Standard Time),” Mt. Gox said.

This marks the second time the platform has moved its deadline. In a 2023 statement, the platform announced that it was moving its repayment deadline from October 31, 2023, to October 31, 2024.

Launched in 2010, Mt. Gox was the biggest crypto exchange, handling around 70% of Bitcoin transactions, before a hack in 2014 caused its collapse. As a result of its security breach, the exchange lost around 850,000 Bitcoin.

In July, it began repaying creditors around $9 billion in recovered assets; however, according to data from Arkham Intelligence, Mt. Gox still holds 44,905 Bitcoin worth around $2.8 billion.

In the latest statement from the defunct exchange, the delay is down to two things: creditors haven’t completed the necessary steps for repayment and because of issues arising from the repayment process.

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Tap-to-earn Games Comes to TikTok

  • Sonic SVM, a layer-2 gaming chain on Solana, launched a tap-to-earn game on TikTok and is partnering with influencers to publicise it.
  • While not a mini app like those on Telegram, users will be able to open a web page using TikTok’s in-app browser to access the game.

Tap-to-earn games have made their way to TikTok with the launch of SonicX, a game similar to Notcoin that involves tapping to earn rings that allow players to upgrade and progress through the game, gathering points for an eventual token launch.

The game includes a social login that allows users to sign up/in with their TikTok accounts to track their points and ultimately claim tokens.

SonicX stands out from other tap-to-earn games on TON by registering each tap as a transaction on the Solana network, a feature which, if executed, could dramatically increase transaction volume on Solana and propel Sonic SVM into popularity as a scalable gaming layer.

The rise of  tap-to-earn games

While SonicX is the first tap-to-earn game on TikTok, it is just another in a series of games that have come to market. Heralded by Notcoin on TON, tap-to-earn games leverage their ease of access and promise of monetary reward.

These games do not require users to possess in-depth blockchain knowledge to play, and are engaging enough to gamify the pursuit of monetary reward via tokens.

Moving beyond Telegram

Telegram proved to be an excellent ecosystem for tap-to-earn games with over 900 million monthly active users and ample crypto support; the tap-to-earn movement brought 300 million players to Telegram.

While most other tap-to-earn games have stuck to Telegram and TON, SonicX intends to leverage TikTok’s 1+ billion monthly active users. Sonic SVM aims to capture 1% of TikTok’s user base, which is roughly 10 million monthly users.

Despite its name and theme, SonicX is not affiliated with the Sonic the Hedgehog brand.

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Crypto whale loses $35M on Blast Network in phishing attack

  • A crypto whale has lost $35M in fwDETH on Blast network due to phishing permit attack.
  • The attacker drained 15,079 fwDETH, causing price drop from $2,000 to $100.
  • The incident has raised security concerns in DeFi, impacting Blast network scrutiny.

A crypto whale recently lost approximately $35 million worth of Few Wrapped Duo ETH (fwDETH) tokens in a major phishing attack on the Blast network.

The attack, first flagged by Scam Sniffer and later confirmed by security firms PeckShield and BlockSec, occurred after the victim unknowingly signed a fraudulent “permit” signature, which allowed the attacker to siphon funds from their wallet.

What is Few Wrapped Duo ETH (fwDETH)?

Few Wrapped Duo ETH, or fwDETH, is a wrapped version of Duo ETH (DETH), a derivative of Ethereum (ETH) issued by Duo, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol operating on the Blast network.

The stolen tokens, 15,079 fwDETH in total, represent a significant loss for the whale, whose wallet address is identified as 0xEab2E…a393.

How was the phishing attack on Blast orchestrated?

Security experts noted that the phishing attack was executed by tricking the whale into signing an offline “permit” message, which is commonly used in DeFi transactions to authorize token transfers without directly using private keys.

According to Yajin (Andy) Zhou, co-founder of BlockSec, the signed permit message was then exploited by the attacker to drain the fwDETH tokens from the victim’s account.

This incident had immediate consequences not just for the whale but also for the price of DETH.

Within hours of the attack, the price of DETH plummeted by over 38%, dropping from $3,482 to $2,150 as the attacker liquidated the stolen tokens.

The price of fwDETH also dropped by over 90% from $2,000 to $100. While the token price later stabilized and partially recovered to $1,000, the sharp decline caused shockwaves across the Blast network and the broader crypto community.

This phishing attack underscores the persistent security risks facing crypto investors, especially those holding large volumes of digital assets.

The Blast network and associated protocols may now face heightened scrutiny as a result of the incident.

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SEC Commissioner says agency’s approach to crypto has been a “disaster for the whole industry”

  • SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said the agency hasn’t provided guidance on securities laws
  • His comments come as Crypto.com sues the SEC for overreaching its regulatory authority over crypto after receiving a Wells notice

A US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner has said that the agency’s approach to crypto has been a “disaster for the whole industry.”

Speaking on Fox Business Mornings with Maria, Mark Uyeda, commissioner of the SEC, said: “I think our policies and our approach over the last several years have been just really a disaster for the whole industry.”

Uyeda added: “What has gone on is part of a broader frustration with the fact that we have not provided interpretive guidance as to what you can and cannot do and if you are involved in some sort of securities offering, how you register, how you get regulated as a broker-dealer, how you get registered as an exchange.”

His comments come after Crypto.com sued the SEC for overreaching its regulatory authority over crypto in response to a Wells notice the exchange received.

More recently, the SEC sued market maker Cumberland for acting as an unregistered securities dealer. Cumberland is reported to have violated securities laws by buying and selling more than $2 billion worth of crypto assets since March 2018.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has also launched its legal offense against the SEC, requesting documents from the agency as to how it determines crypto regulation. However, last month, the regulator sought an extension to February 2025 for it to provide documents in its case against Coinbase.

Ripple Labs is also not backing down against the regulator after filing a notice of cross-appeal in an ongoing battle going back to 2020.

When asked what the SEC could do differently, Uyeda said there is a “need to lay out some clear guidance and interpretations on what exactly falls within and falls outside of the securities laws.”

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has said he’d be interested in becoming the chair of the SEC if Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the next President of the White House.

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