Three Bitcoin Holders Sue Apple, Alleging Counterfeit Sparrow Wallet on App Store Caused $1.8 Million in Losses

TechFlow news, on July 29, according to Decrypt reports, three Bitcoin holders filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on July 24, alleging that counterfeit Sparrow Wallet applications listed on its App Store caused the three individuals to lose a total of approximately $1.8 million. Specific losses were as follows: James Ramirez lost 7.4 BTC (approximately $875,000), Christopher Ellis lost $840,000, Jalen Delgado lost 1.05 BTC (approximately $120,000); all three entered their seed phrases in the counterfeit application, resulting in stolen assets.

The complaint indicates that Ramirez reported the application to Apple on July 25, 2025, but nine days later, Ellis still downloaded the same counterfeit application from the App Store and suffered losses, and as of the filing of the complaint, Apple had never contacted Ramirez regarding the report.

It is worth noting that Sparrow Wallet has never released an iOS version, and any application with the same name on the App Store is counterfeit. Sparrow Wallet developer Craig Raw publicly warned Apple about the existence of counterfeit applications as early as January 2024, and once attempted to list an application solely intended to inform users that Sparrow is desktop software, but was rejected by Apple on the grounds of "placeholder content"; his developer account was even marked for termination on the grounds of "dishonest behavior" at one point, but was later revoked after appeal.

Apple Inc. declined to comment on the lawsuit, stating only that its latest ecosystem analysis shows it has rejected over 371,000 malicious App Store submissions, and stated that there are currently no counterfeit Sparrow Wallet applications on the App Store.