Verdict up front: StartMine has not been updated since 9 May 2023 — more than three years — yet its listing still takes in-app purchases for miners. Users report paying for a miner, reaching the withdrawal amount and receiving nothing, with support not answering and emails bouncing. One reviewer says he thinks most of the reviews are fake.
Listing facts — checked 22 September 2026
- Developer: StartMine
- Package: com.startmine.app
- Downloads: 100,000+
- Rating: 4.7 from 6,300 reviews
- Money taken: ads and in-app purchases
- Play category: Finance
- Last updated: 9 May 2023
The pitch
StartMine: Mining & Rewards describes itself as “the all-in-one app that makes earning Bitcoin easy”, where you “get rewarded for completing simple tasks and cloud mining”. The gallery goes further: “Invest & Earn — Get interest”, “Just 1 Click And start making money”, and “Live Chat Team 24/7”.
“Invest” and “get interest” are the language of a financial product. No licence, regulator or legal entity is named anywhere on the listing.
What users report
A paying user’s account
A Trade Group Ltd, 22 January 2024: “I think most of the reviews are fake. I invested a small amount and paid for a miner. When it finally reached the withdraw amount I tried and it didn’t come through. The customer support does not work and also the email gets rejected.”
grant du toit, the same day, writes that it has been “weeks and nothing paid” once it came to making a withdrawal.
Three years of silence
An app that is still selling miners should be maintained. Android changes every year; payment rules, security patches and wallet formats move on. StartMine’s listing shows its last update as 9 May 2023. The shop is open; the workshop is not.
Put that alongside the reviews. The support address bounces. The “24/7 live chat” on the marketing image does not match what users describe. And the one step that proves the whole thing — a withdrawal leaving the app — is exactly where the complaints cluster.
4.7 stars, and why that should worry you
A 4.7 average from 6,300 reviews would be excellent for a calculator. For an app whose paying users report no payout and a dead inbox, it is a mismatch that needs explaining. The reviewer who said “most of the reviews are fake” was describing exactly that gap. Earning apps often reward users for ratings or require a review to unlock bonuses, and Google Play policy prohibits both. You cannot see that from the outside, but you can see the contradiction.
What a real service would show
A named company, a registered address, a support channel that answers, a changelog, and payouts you can verify on-chain. StartMine offers an interest rate on a screenshot and an email address that rejects mail.
Before you pay any mining app
Four checks take less than two minutes. Read the full description for the words simulation, virtual or for entertainment. Find the withdrawal minimum and compare it with what one day of “mining” adds. Look at the Play category and the developer name: a mining app filed under Tools or Productivity, or published under a personal name or a string of keywords, is avoiding scrutiny. Then sort the reviews by newest and read the one-star ones about withdrawals. If none of those checks passes, the only safe amount to spend is nothing.
- Check the “Updated on” date before paying for anything. Three years untouched is abandonment.
- “Invest” and “interest” in an app with no named company is a warning in itself.
- A high average with angry recent reviews points to rating inflation.
- Test the support email before you buy. If it bounces, you have your answer.
If you have already paid
Cancel any subscription in Google Play (Payments & subscriptions), not inside the app. Request a refund through Google Play while the charge is recent. Screenshot your balance, the withdrawal screen and every purchase before anything changes. Then report it at IC3.gov, or to Action Fraud in the UK.
