Like many in crypto, I used to use Bitcoin faucets. While I unfortunately missed the days when faucets gave over 1 BTC per claim, I was early enough that I got at least a little bit.

Over the years, I stopped using most of them. Doing the captchas was always annoying enough, but as time went on most faucets added more and more ads until the sites were just covered in them, then they started trying to force users and/or trick users into clicking on the ads. That was the point when I said enough is enough and I left most of them behind.

All in fact, except one. Freebitco.in. I had enough of a balance there that they didn't make me do captchas to claim BTC every hour, plus I had made enough referrals over the years that I received quite a bit just from that. The site never did ads, since they had successfully implemented a dice game that seemed to make them a lot of money.

I haven't bothered with the hourly claims in years actually. Even if I don't have to complete captchas, these days they only offer like 2 sat per claim, making it not really worth the mental effort to remember to go there and hit the claim button. But I have kept money parked there since they pay daily interest.

Also, some time ago I won some FUN tokens and moved them to the site. Holding FUN tokens there gives one an interest rate boost and gives a few roulette spins which often give around 50 sat a spin. Still not much, so I didn't always bother claiming them, but it was another perk.

Freebitco.in has been not only the most reliable Bitcoin faucet for the last ten years, but it's been one of the most reliable Bitcoin services period. But... all things eventually must come to an end.

All Things End

This past July the site stopped giving premium users (people who had FUN staked on the site) the daily roulette spins. Support was completely unresponsive for several weeks, but eventually their support guy on bitcointalk.org wrote that they were having site problems and that they promised to give everyone all the missed spins. He answered a few more questions about the site status and then disappeared, never to return. Now, several months later, he hasn't come back yet to give any updates. At one point about two months later the daily spins came back, but then they quickly disappeared again. At this point it's been about 6 months. Even if the site were in great health, giving all the premium users all of those missed daily spins would probably be too much for the site to handle.

That's strike one.

Ever since starting the FUN staking roulette spins, Freebitco.in has also emailed 2 free spins per day to all registered users of the site. Kind of a promotion, a carrot to entice people to buy some FUN tokens and stake them and get more spins. Even after the premium spins stopped, these free email spins continued. Until about two weeks ago. There has been nothing since there.

That's strike two.

About a week ago, the daily interest payments on held BTC also stopped. Ever since the site started paying interest several years ago they have rarely missed a day. But now a week goes by and nothing. People are complaining on the various social media, but Freebitco.in hasn't issued any response.

That's the third strike.

Those three things alone give enough red flags for me to jump ship. I withdrew all my BTC. I had .05 there, so yeah... I probably had too much there anyway, but it's enough money that I am not willing to risk it. I figure if the site recovers in the future, I can always send back. But as things are, I'd say get out while you can.

That's a recommendation to anyone who still has money on that site: withdraw it to your main wallet. If in the future the site starts paying interest again, starts giving all the roulette spins to members and registered users, starts communicating with us again, then feel free to send your money back there to enjoy things again. But for now, be wary. As the saying goes, better safe than sorry.

Lawsuit?

There is another wrinkle. On bitcointalk.org in one of the threads talking about Freebitco.in, someone posted this. It is in Dutch, but you can use Deepl to translate it.

Basically it seems to be news showing that the Dutch Gaming Authority is coming after the site, accusing them of offering illegal gambling, and threatening a fine of €280,000 per week, up to a maximum of €840,000, if the site doesn't stop all gambling activity.

I'd say this is all the more reason to withdraw all your money from the site right now. Again, if they can recover in the future, all the better, but for now it would probably be safest to get out for the time being.

Now you know.

If you know anything I don't, please let us all know in the comments.

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David is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.