Vintage 2010 Bitcoin Faucet Roars Back to Life—Will It Survive Modern Crypto’s Shark Tank?

The OG Bitcoin faucet that gave away free satoshis when BTC traded at $0.25 is staging a comeback. Cue nostalgic crypto bros dusting off their 2010-era wallets.

Can this relic survive in an era of institutional whales and $60K price tags? Or will it become another footnote in crypto’s ruthless Darwinism—like that time Goldman Sachs ’adopted’ blockchain while quietly shorting miners.

The original faucet was designed to help onboard new users to the Bitcoin network at a time when buying or mining BTC was cumbersome and often required technical know-how.

At the time, Andresen funded the faucet with 1,100 BTC and saw it as a way to grow the network organically. The idea worked: thousands of early users got their first exposure to Bitcoin through the faucet, which, in hindsight, distributed small fortunes for free.

By the time the faucet shut down, its payouts had dwindled to fractions of a BTC, but its cultural impact remained legendary — especially as BTC prices surged over the next decade.