Craig Raw built one of the most respected self-custody Bitcoin wallets in the ecosystem. Apple is about to kick him off macOS for trying to protect his users from scammers.
Raw announced on June 22 that Apple has flagged his developer account for termination, with a June 30 deadline. The trigger: a placeholder app Raw submitted to the App Store designed to warn users that over a dozen fraudulent “Sparrow” apps were stealing people’s funds. Apple classified this warning app as “dishonest activity.” The actual dishonest activity, the impersonator apps draining wallets, apparently didn’t register with the same urgency.
The scam problem Apple won’t fix
Sparrow Wallet is a desktop-only, open-source Bitcoin wallet available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It has no official mobile version.
Yet since 2023, more than a dozen fake apps bearing the Sparrow name have popped up on Apple’s App Store. These aren’t subtle knockoffs with slightly different logos. They’re outright impersonators targeting users searching for a legitimate Bitcoin wallet, and some victims have reported losing their life savings.
