Voorhees founded ShapeShift, which the SEC's 2024 order records as a Swiss company founded on 1 July 2014 that launched ShapeShift.io on 1 August 2014 and operated from Denver, Colorado. The service exchanged one crypto asset for another with no account, with the company itself as the counterparty to every trade.
The decision he is most associated with is the one to end that arrangement. ShapeShift's announcement of 14 July 2021 identifies him as "founder and CEO of ShapeShift" and quotes him: "It has become clear that open, immutable finance requires open, immutable organizations. Inspired by the broader DeFi community, we'll now help pioneer a new model of economic coordination for the 21st century. No corporate entity, no banks and no borders." The same announcement set out the steps: dissolve the corporate structure, open-source the code base, and give the FOX token governance rights over what was left.
The SEC order confirms both halves happened. It records that in January 2021 ShapeShift stopped acting as counterparty to customer transactions, and that on 14 July 2021 it announced it was winding down its corporate structure.