Well, the end is here for FreeBitco.in, as I expected. It was the very first site I ever used to earn free BTC, so this is a bit of a nostalgic moment, though not a happy one...

I tried to withdraw my sats back in mid-October. After a couple of days without any incoming transaction, I sent a message to support and got no answer. At that point, I told myself: "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, your sats are gone."

I logged in today just to check, and my sat balance is still magically "growing" from interest (lol, sure). But there's also a new announcement:

The message says they're shutting down due to "widespread abuse." They claim funds are safe for "genuine users" and that they're manually sifting through tens of millions of accounts to separate the good from the bad. They expect to enable withdrawals by early 2026.

I don't have much hope of ever seeing my sats again, even if I'm a "genuine user." The whole thing feels incredibly shady, but I guess it's something.

If you had funds on there, you might want to log in and see the message for yourself. And definitely, DO NOT SEND ANY FUNDS!

P.S. The irony of this message coming from the guy who launched Seed Keys isn't lost on me.

P.P.S. Last year, I bought my son a Trezor and gave him a choice: keep the sats he had on there, or send them to his own cold storage. He chose the latter. I should have been as wise as him.