Apple lifts iOS crypto rules

Apple did not quietly flip a new crypto switch in April 2026. The policy change people are citing dates to May 1, 2025, when Apple rewrote U.S. App Store rules after losing in court. (developer.apple.com) (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) The trigger was Epic Games’ fight with Apple over “anti-steering” rules, which had limited how apps could send users to pay outside the App Store. On April 30, 2025, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Apple was in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction. (macrumors.com) (developer.apple.com) Apple then said its App Review Guidelines were updated for the U.S. storefront to comply with the court decision. The changes touched rules 3.1.1, 3.1.1(a), 3.1.3, and 3.1.3(a), which govern payments, links, and other purchase methods. (developer.apple.com) The Ninth Circuit later upheld the contempt finding on December 11, 2025. Its opinion said Apple could not block buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct users to purchases outside the App Store. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) That matters for crypto because wallets, non-fungible token marketplaces, and trading apps often sell digital goods or route users to web payments. If an app serves U.S. App Store users, it now has more room to point them to outside checkout without Apple’s old link restrictions. (developer.apple.com) (theblock.co) The change was not a blanket approval for paying inside iPhone apps with cryptocurrency. Apple’s guidelines still keep a separate section for cryptocurrencies, and Apple added crypto exchanges in November 2025 to its list of apps operating in “highly regulated fields.” (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) Developers also still face review risk over how these flows are implemented. RevenueCat said in May 2025 that Apple had updated the rules quickly, and some non-reader apps appeared to pass review with external billing only, but enforcement looked uneven. (revenuecat.com) There is a second story running alongside that policy shift: App Store safety. In April 2026, Kaspersky researchers and several outlets reported fake crypto wallet apps on Apple’s store that were built to steal seed phrases. (crowdfundinsider.com) (securityweek.com) So the clean version is this: Apple’s U.S. rules already changed in 2025 because a court forced them to. In 2026, crypto teams are still working out what that means for checkout design, compliance, and trust on a store that is still reviewing — and sometimes missing — crypto apps. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2)