ShapeShift Review – Can You Trust This Crypto Exchange?

About ShapeShift

ShapeShift is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and cryptocurrency exchange aimed at building a borderless financial system built on open, decentralized protocols.

As an open-source, multi-chain, self-custody crypto platform, the ShapeShift platform enables users from anywhere in the world to buy, sell, track, and trade crypto assets with no KYC or other personal details.

In addition to serving as a cryptocurrency exchange platform, ShapeShift allows users to stake their crypto assets or deposit them into a DeFi strategy to earn yield via desktop or the ShapeShift app.

So, is ShapeShift safe? Is ShapeShift legit? Find out all this and more in this in-depth ShapeShift review!

ShapeShift Trading Platform

Like most decentralized protocols, the ShapeShift cryptocurrency exchange supports hundreds of digital assets, so there is no doubt you will find the crypto assets you’re looking for.

The aesthetic and overall design is also exceptional. Everything from the order panel to the market data to the chart is extremely readable and user-friendly.

While the platform is missing a traditional candlestick chart found with most trading platforms, it includes a beautiful line chart with timeframes of 1h, 24h, 1W, 1M, 1Y, and all time.

This is a step up from the vast majority of DeFi platforms but still won’t be ideal for active traders, especially given ShapeShift doesn’t include limit, stop-loss, take-profit, or other special order types.  

To actually trade cryptocurrencies on the platform, you’ll have to connect a web-supported crypto wallet like MetaMask, but once completed, exchanges are incredibly simple.

Linking a cold crypto wallet or using a web wallet can be confusing on your first go. Still, it’s a great way to hold onto your private keys and practice cold storage asset management, which other cryptocurrency exchanges don’t always allow or promote.

A final key point to keep in mind about the ShapeShift crypto exchange is it doesn’t charge any fees to swap crypto like other exchanges. 

There are network fees, which are standard in crypto, and crypto exchange rates can vary depending on the assets and liquidity characteristics, but all the ShapeShift fees are highly affordable.

Cryptocurrency Exchange

In addition to ShapeShift’s crypto-to-crypto exchange, the platform has also partnered with several fiat ramp providers for users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with fiat currency.

The fiat ramp providers include Mt Pelerin for non-US buyers/sellers (no KYC), JunoPay for US-only buying, Banxa, and GEM.

Each provider’s fees can vary, but they are all extremely competitive. For example, buying $500 in USDC through JunoPay can cost you less than $4.

DeFi Staking and Crypto Lending

As alluded to at the beginning of this review, ShapeShift supports crypto staking and lending through various DeFi protocols like Yearn Finance and Cosmos.

ShapeShift supports over 50 staking and yield farming options with assets like ETH, BTC, USDT, USDC, DAI, and countless more. ShapeShift even supports pools based on fiat currencies like GBP and JPY.

The yields for these different pools will vary from APYs of just 0.04% to as high as 25.46%.

To participate in the pools and earn that yield, all you have to do is deposit the appropriate funds. Once those funds are deposited, you can easily monitor your “Wallet” and “Earn” balances in the DeFi “Overview” section.

FOX Tokens

As a DAO, ShapeShift is governed by the community of FOX token holders. The FOX token is ShapeShift’s native crypto asset and affords users certain advantages within the platform.

Aside from the token enabling users to influence the future of ShapeShift through their votes, it also includes an ever-expanding universe of investing opportunities.

The first opportunity is FOX staking, which earns 1.58% APY and still allows you to use your FOX tokens in governance.

Other opportunities include liquidity providing with ETH as its counterpart for 0.50% APY and yield farming through Uniswap for 42.16% APY.

How ShapeShift Compares to Competitors

Given ShapeShift’s emphasis on decentralization, the obvious competitors are other decentralized protocols like Uniswap, 1inch, SushiSwap, and the like.

All the above platforms are ostensibly equivalent in terms of supported assets, but there are notable differences in each respective interface and some of the other crypto services offered.

While Uniswap has a more robust ecosystem of dapps integrated into its platform, it isn’t quite as user-friendly. The number of pools listed is also pretty comparable, meaning short of a specific pool one has that the other doesn’t, it will likely come down to the UI, where the ShapeShift exchange arguably has the lead.

As for the 1inch platform, it is much more conducive to active trading, has far more pools, and more extensive crypto products and services. The platform/UI might be a little harder to navigate, but it is arguably better in most ways.

Much like Uniswap, SushiSwap isn’t all that suited for active trading, but it easily has the best pooling/yield farming opportunities out of each platform mentioned.

Overall, ShapeShift’s key advantage is its interface. Despite not being ideal for active crypto traders, it has a great exchange, and its pools are solid, but the X factor is the aesthetic and intuitive design.

ShapeShift Review – Final Thoughts

After carefully walking through all of its services for this ShapeShift review, we believe ShapeShift is an excellent platform for buying and earning crypto, especially for those seeking anonymity.

If you are an active trader who needs advanced charts/order types or someone who doesn’t value anonymity throughout all your crypto activity, a centralized exchange like Coinbase or Binance could be a better option.

However, ShapeShift has as many or more assets, an incredibly user-friendly platform, and low (albeit variable) fees, so users won’t be sacrificing much to take advantage of the privacy features.

ShapeShift’s staking/earning opportunities may not be as developed as many competitors, but they’re certainly well above average, especially considering the fiat currency pools it supports.

Bearing all this in mind, we highly recommend ShapeShift to anyone venturing into the world of DeFi, as it is one of the best platforms available for easy and anonymous crypto exchanges and earning.

Even if you aren’t concerned with the anonymity features, the platform is still absolutely worth checking out. It remains an excellent gateway to trading and earning crypto and rivals the best platforms out there, decentralized or otherwise.