RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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In the suit, filed July 24 and spotted by MacRumors, three people say they collectively had about $1.84 million stolen after downloading an app impersonating Sparrow Wallet and entering their bitcoin BTC $ 62,983.54 seed phrases. Seed phrases allow anyone possessing them to control and transfer assets from the associated wallets.
In a suit filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the plaintiffs argue Apple’s marketing led them to believe applications in its tightly controlled marketplace were vetted and safe. They brought eight claims covering consumer-protection laws, fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation and failure to warn.
Apple has faced similar lawsuits before. In 2021, cryptocurrency holders sued the company over a "fake" wallet app scam in a case that was dismissed. A federal judge agreed with Apple that it couldn't be held liable for the app because it was considered the publisher of the content, not its creator.
In the current suit, James Ramirez, claims he downloaded the app on July 25, 2025 and had 7.4 BTC “transferred to a scammer.” He reported the app and theft to Apple that day, according to the filing. Christopher Ellis allegedly lost about $840,000 after installing the app on Aug. 3.
Jalen Delgado, who had downloaded the app around May 1, 2025, lost 1.05 BTC, then worth roughly $120,000 after relying on “Apple’s representations that its App Store was safe and the apps hosted in the Apple App Store had been vetted by experts,” according to the filing.
Ramirez and Ellis said Apple never responded to their reports.
The official Sparrow Wallet is a desktop-only application available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It does not offer an iOS version.
The lawsuit alleges Apple ranked the fraudulent application and included it in curated cryptocurrency app collections alongside legitimate products. It also points to Sparrow developer Craig Raw warning in January 2024 that an impersonator remained available despite being reported to Apple weeks earlier.
The case seeks reimbursement of the alleged stolen assets, compensatory and punitive damages and potentially multiplied damages. The plaintiffs also want Apple to disclose the limitations of its review process, strengthen its controls and warn users that an App Store listing does not establish that a cryptocurrency application is authentic.
Apple told MacRumors in an update that it has taken action to remove any apps impersonating Sparrow Wallet on the App Store and to terminate developer accounts associated with those apps.
Apple said developers who suspect that content available on an Apple service infringes on their intellectual property rights can submit a dispute form to Apple’s legal department, and customers can also report App Store scams or fraud.
The company noted that it previously terminated 193,000 developer accounts over fraud. In its App Store fraud report , the firm says it rejected more than 371,000 copycat, spam, or misleading submissions last year and stopped over $2.2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions.
CoinDesk contacted Apple for comment, and had not received a response by publication time.
Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.
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