The Alby Bitcoin Wallet is embroiled in controversy as many users in the community report that their wallet balances have been "stolen" in an unusual manner. According to a report from Mars Finance, some users suspect that the Alby development team itself has deducted funds from user wallets without clear notification.
The cause is believed to stem from new service terms updated by Alby in March 2025. According to these terms, Alby claims to have sent notifications to users requesting withdrawal from old wallets created before 2023 — wallets using shared wallet architecture. However, if a wallet has no transaction activity for 12 consecutive months, Alby reserves the right to recover the entire remaining balance in order to "manage inactive accounts more efficiently".
This information is causing a strong wave of controversy in the cryptocurrency user community, especially among those who choose to use self-managed wallets as an independent security solution, independent of third parties. The fact that a self-managed wallet has a mechanism for recovering or automatically deducting user funds raises many questions about transparency and asset control in current wallet systems.
