Bitcoin pioneer Charlie Shrem announced plans to relaunch the bitcoin faucet on May 4, 2025, aiming to distribute free bitcoins like the original faucet created by Gavin Andresen in 2010, which gave away five bitcoins per request to promote adoption, according to his post on X. Shrem, who spent two years in prison in 2014 on charges related to Silk Road, could leverage the current value of bitcoin — around $95,000 per coin — making even small faucet payouts significant. The first bitcoin faucet helped millions of people explore cryptocurrency when the whole idea was still unproven, so the new one could assist many others in opening a wallet for the first time in 2025.