ShapeShift, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Switzerland, has announced full integration with THORChain, enabling direct trading of Bitcoin (BTC) with Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC). As of Tuesday, ShapeShift’s mobile users have the ability to make cross-chain swaps without the use of an intermediary, custodian or counterparty of any kind. This capability will be extended to ShapeShift’s web-based platform in the coming weeks. Erik Voorhees, ShapeShift’s founder and CEO, explained the importance of the THORChain integration: “We believe finance must be open and immutable. The THORChain team has built technology that brings these properties to the trading of bitcoin and …

In a newly released report, Swiss cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift explores the potential role of so-called “staking derivatives” in addressing some of the challenges posed by Proof-of-Stake, or PoS, protocols. Yield Unchained: Exploring Staking Derivatives shines the spotlight on existing challenges with POS protocols – namely, the opportunity cost that comes with locking up capital in a consensus mechanism. Staking derivatives, the report says, allows users to combine the benefits of staking returns and the ability to deploy their capital in DeFi and other protocols. “Staking derivatives offer a tantalizing, best-of-both-worlds approach where users can enjoy both staking returns and the …

A new report suggests that Cosmos, Polkadot and NEAR could fail to take off if they are perceived to have an issue with centralization — as the example of EOS demonstrates. Non-custodial crypto asset exchange ShapeShift has published a report predicting that Proof-of-Stake scalable smart contract networks Polkadot, Cosmos, and Near will be thoroughly put to the test this year. The report forecasts the networks’ claims of increased scalability without sacrificing security or decentralization will soon be tested. Shapeshift notes the distribution of Polkadot’s and NEAR’s respective native tokens appears quite centralized as a result of “relatively high insider token …

Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees has drawn a metaphorical line in the financial sand, stating that every asset manager should understand Bitcoin now based on its astonishing rate of return. Voorhees made the comments while retweeting data shared by analytics platform Messari co-founder Dan McArdle that shows Bitcoin has dramatically outperformed everything over the last decade. While gold has returned a 32% profit and the S&P 500 has tripled investors’ money, Bitcoin has posted an incredible 7,837,884% gain in ten years. Looking across its 10-year life, Voorhees believes Bitcoin is “vastly superior to any other investment.” He said that: “One could …

Cryptocurrencies are commonly known for being a store of value, but as the blockchain space continues to mature, utility tokens are being created that extend their benefits beyond mere financial gains. Scott Gralnick, director of global partnerships for ShapeShift — a Swiss cryptocurrency exchange — told Cointelegraph that cryptocurrency can help launch Web 3.0 as more utility tokens are designed to provide functions beyond market value: “At ShapeShift, we are looking past the idea of whether a token has value and can be traded or held. Moving forward, we hope that tokens will have functionality beyond being just a digital …

Cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift recently delisted three privacy coins: Dash, Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR). This was an unexpected move to say the least, given the exchange’s historic commitment to privacy. As a noncustodial platform, Shapeshift did not impose user identification requirements on traders in its early days, although this began to change with the gradual introduction of a mandatory membership model, compliant with Know Your Customer rules, as of 2018. Why then, did it move to delist Dash, Zcash and Monero, even as other exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.US still list these coins? In a statement shared with …

Following the theft and repayment of $900,000 in Bitcoin (BTC), Shapeshift is now pursuing damages in court against its former senior software engineer, Azamat Mukhiddinov. "There was significant time lost and legal costs associated with the clean-up," Shapeshift's chief legal officer, Veronica McGregor, told Cointelegraph, noting that customer funds were safe throughout the ordeal. "ShapeShift is non-custodial, so no customer funds were ever at risk," she said. Working in a high level position for Shapeshift, Mukhiddinov allegedly used his access to the exchange's backend to steal roughly 90 BTC, worth nearly $900,000 in May 2020 at the time of the …

Self-custody crypto platform Shapeshift has launched a mobile trading app for iOS and android users to buy and sell digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) without trusting their private keys to a 3rd party. The app which only requires users to use an email address and password to sign in with currently supports BTC, ETH, Litecoin (LTC), DigiByte (DGB), TrueUSD TUSD and ERC-20 tokens. Shapeshift CEO and Founder Erik Voorhees stated the mobile app will give users self-sovereign finance anywhere: “As traditional financial systems become increasingly tenuous, Bitcoin offers refuge and empowerment. We're here to make it …

Non fungible tokens (NFT) representing diamonds have made their way to the OpenSea marketplace. In the past, there have been quite a few attempts to tokenize diamonds and other precious stones and metals. But Icecap founder and CEO Jacques Voorhees says the problem with previous attempts was they treated diamonds as fungible commodities, which they are not. He told Cointelegraph that when he first heard about NFTs from his son Erik Voorhees (CEO of ShapeShift), it all came together. “They're as different as a snowflake,” he said. “All the efforts to try to create fungibility with a non fungible item, …

Cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift has acquired Israeli non-custodial wallet provider Portis. Founded in 2018, Portis is a non-custodial software wallet that was first integrated into ShapeShift last November as part of the exchange’s pursuit of self-custody solutions that don’t require traders to use a hardware wallet. Speaking to Cointelegraph on April 15, ShapeShift founder Erik Vorhees revealed that following the acquisition, ShapeShift users will have integrated access to multiple decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and services. Meanwhile, Portis users will be able to log in with their Portis wallet and trade cryptocurrencies on ShapeSift commission-free. Migrating "away from fiat and banks altogether" …

Switzerland-based crypto exchange, ShapeShift, has enabled its United States-based customers to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) with a debit card in the new exchange’s platform. ShapeShift’s founder, Eric Voorhees, announced the development in a tweet on April 3, saying: “If you're in the US, you can buy Bitcoin instantly in the new ShapeShift.com platform with your debit card. You can literally have the Bitcoin, in your possession, five minutes from now.” KYC processes compliance ShapeShift’s new platform doesn’t require account verification to purchase cryptocurrencies, which has led to questions from the tweet’s commentators. When asked about the project’s Know-Your-Customer …

The digital currency space has seen rapid growth and expansion in 2019, with heightened interest from governments and global corporations. Cryptos recovered from the 2018 bear market, when with Bitcoin (BTC) crashed to as low as $3,800, leaving numerous experts to paint a gloomy picture of a longstanding bear market and call the downturn in the first half of 2019 the longest and harshest in the crypto history. While cryptocurrency markets were struggling to recover, corporate and central bank digital currencies have quietly become a focus of attention. The blockchain sector has seen exponential growth in 2019, as it became …