ShapeShift Raises $525k, Reveals Erik Voorhees as Creator

Mar 10, 2015 at 15:00 UTCUpdated Mar 11, 2015 at 17:12 UTC. Instant bitcoin and altcoin exchange ShapeShift has received $525,000 in seed funding from investors Barry Silbert and Roger Ver.

"ShapeShift has reinvented the altcoin market and enables the fastest, most efficient and least risky way for people to exchange different digital currencies and tokens."

Shapeshifting CEO. As part of the funding announcement, entrepreneur Erik Voorhees has come forward as ShapeShift's creator and CEO, having operated under the alias Beorn Gonthier - a reference to J R R Tolkein's own shapeshifter - since its launch in 2013.

"I wanted the early launch of ShapeShift to be about the innovation of the site itself and its advancement over traditional order-book exchanges, rather than about me," he said.

The ShapeShift team now includes eight full-time staffers, including four developers.

ShapeShift claims to have witnessed a staggering increase in volume - 30% every month over the past half year.

Voorhees cited the high-profile hacking of altcoin exchanges BTER and MintPal as two key reasons why users need a new kind of exchange, one that doesn't act as a custodian of funds.

"There is a better way. Bitcoin services can be built to significantly reduce or eliminate the need for trust at all ShapeShift was built as a demonstration of this principle: exchanges occur without custodianship of user funds. Indeed, there are no user accounts whatsoever."

With regards to regulation, Voorhees said ShapeShift has received explicit favorable legal opinion in Switzerland and complies with all existing requirements in the markets it operates in.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that ShapeShift has raised £525,000.