Free Bitcoin Faucet From 2010 Is Back
The original faucet was giving out 5 BTC to each user, which now equates to almost $500,000 per transaction.
Author: Shaurya Malwa | Edited by: Parikshit Mishra Updated: May 5, 2025 2:08 PM Published: May 5, 2025 12:46 PM
What you need to know:
- Charlie Shrem is reviving a Bitcoin faucet reminiscent of the original created by Gavin Andresen in 2010.
- The original faucet gave away 5 BTC for free to each user, which is now equivalent to almost $500,000 per transaction.
- The new faucet is not yet functional and does not currently contain any bitcoins.
A relic of Bitcoin's early days is making a comeback, possibly reviving a tradition where Bitcoin (BTC) was given away for free to anyone who could solve a simple CAPTCHA.
Charlie Shrem, one of the early Bitcoin developers and entrepreneurs, announced the relaunch of the Bitcoin Faucet earlier Monday, posting a link to a page that resembled the one created by Gavin Andresen in 2010.
This faucet famously gave away 5 BTC to each user for free in their Bitcoin wallets when the token was worth less than one cent. Each of these transfers is worth almost $500,000 at current rates.
The site does not yet have a rewards feature, and as of Monday morning, there are no BTC in the US balance.
The original faucet was created to help new users get connected to the Bitcoin network during a time when buying or mining BTC was a difficult task and required some technical skills.
At the time, Andresen funded a faucet worth 1,100 BTC and saw it as a way to stimulate organic growth of the network. The idea was successful: thousands of early users first encountered Bitcoin through a faucet that, in retrospect, gave away small fortunes for free.
By the time the faucet closed, payouts had been reduced to fractions of a BTC, but its cultural impact remained significant—especially given the dramatic rise in BTC prices over the next decade.
