ShapeShift cites regulatory risks in delisting privacy coins

Following Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH), the instant cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift has stopped supporting Zcash (ZEC). The company attributed this decision to potential regulatory concerns.

“We are shielding the company from regulatory risks, so at the moment we are not working with these coins,” said ShapeShift’s chief legal officer Veronica McGregor in comments to CoinDesk ShapeShift’s chief legal officer Veronica McGregor.

ShapeShift is one of the investors in Electric Coin Company, which backs the development of Zcash, and shortly after the 2016 mainnet launch added support for the coin.

That ShapeShift conducted a delisting of XMR and DASH without prior notice to users was revealed last week.

An open question remains as to how closely the company’s stance aligns with the views of U.S. regulators. The Department of Homeland Security and the IRS have contracted with analytics firms to help track XMR transactions.

Coinbase previously refused to list Monero over potential regulatory concerns. Zcash and Dash are available on Binance.US and Kraken, and Gemini has allowed users to withdraw Zcash to shielded addresses.

In 2015, ShapeShift refused to accommodate regulators and completely ceased servicing residents of New York and Washington. In 2018, the company introduced a mandatory registration in the form of a membership program that drew criticism.

End of an era: the Bitcoin community harshly criticized ShapeShift’s new rules

Founder and CEO Erik Voorhees later said that the decision helped pre-empt potential legal risks for the company.

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