Non-custodial crypto platform ShapeShift has denied US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claims of “illegal financing,” suggesting she used the platform as a scapegoat to “push” the latest crypto bill, according to a new statement.
ShapeShift stated in a tweet on February 19 that Warren made “mistakes” in his “analysis” of the platform, in a recent senate banking committee hearing titled “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets,” Feb. 14.
On Valentine’s Day, @SenWarren try using ShapeShift as an example to push the latest crypto bills.
Unfortunately, there was an error in the Senator’s analysis, and we want to take the opportunity to set the record straight
– ShapeShift (@ShapeShift) February 18, 2023
In the follow up tweetShapeShift denied Warren’s comments about involvement with “illegal financing,” saying it “never handles user funds,” and has no ability to “facilitate this.”
This comes after Warren suggested in a Senate hearing that ShapeShift has an ulterior motive to restructure itself as a DeFi platform in July 2021.
Warren suggested that the restructuring was to encourage people to “launder” money on the platform.
Shapeshift also clarified that it is “not an exchange,” clarifying that it is an open-source crypto dashboard that “connects users” to different protocols and platforms.
He added that he cares about the “same things” as Warren, citing “user security” and “access to innovation” as shared focuses.
ShapeShift encourages Warren and others to “engage constructively” on the topic of financial freedom and innovation with their community, sharing a link to a discussion forum.
This is just a day after Erik Vorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, took to Twitter personally on February 18, stated that he expects Warren to “submit a proposal” to the Shapeshift DAO governance process, in response to his criticism of the platform.
related: US Senator Elizabeth Warren says crypto will destroy the economy – Community responds
Warren has been a vocal crypto skeptic in recent times, having made comments in an interview on January 25, stating that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should “double down” on crypto enforcement efforts, as the crypto industry fears what’s to come.
He claimed that the previous SEC administration “mainly gave the green light” to open the cryptocurrency market “full of junk tokens, unregistered securities, carpet pulling, Ponzi schemes, pumps and dumps, money laundering and sanction evasions.”
Cointelegraph reached out to ShapeShift for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.