ShapeShift, founded in 2014 by Erik Voorhees was a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Switzerland that turned into a permissionless DAO operating on the blockchain. Its decentralized application empowers users to trade the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 10,000+ crypto assets across 14 chains.
In March 2015, the company received a US$525,000seed-stage investment by Roger Ver and Barry Silbert.[citation needed] Additional funding totaling US$1.6 million were raised by September 2015, from investors in a second funding round including Digital Currency Group, Bitfinex, Bitcoin Capital and Mardal Investments.[2][3]
ShapeShift released initially on the iOS platform in June 2015, allowing users to swap 25 digital currencies and value tokens.[4]
On 11 June 2015, ShapeShift "cut off service to New York in response to the state’s new regulatory policy for digital currency businesses, ... BitLicense," which was released in June with the final regulations approved in August.[5][6][7]
The company stated that if they had complied with the New York BitLicense regulations, then significant personal and private data would also have been in the hands of the hacker.
In March 2017, ShapeShift raised $10.4 million in series A funding from both US and international venture capital firms. Berlin-based Earlybird Venture Capital was the lead investor, with additional funding from Lakestar, Access Venture Partners, Pantera Capital and Blockchain Capital.[8][9]
ShapeShift, unlike many exchanges, did not require user identification, allowing for anonymous transactions. This lack of oversight enabled criminals, including North Korean hackers and Ponzi scheme operators, to launder nearly $90 million in criminal proceeds, with ShapeShift processing the largest portion of these funds among exchanges with U.S. presence. ShapeShift's policy facilitated the conversion of traceable cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin into untraceable ones like Monero, effectively obscuring the money trail.[10][11] A 2018 investigation by the Wall Street Journal alleged that ShapeShift had facilitated money laundering of $90 million in funds from criminal activities over a two-year period.[12] These allegations were proven inconclusive and were the result of a smear campaign against ShapeShift.
Shortly after, the company began requiring personal identification information from its customers on October 1, 2018.[12]
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