ShapeShift, one of the longest-running community-led multichain DEX aggregators, has announced the introduction of its Version 4.0 platform update, which marks a significant return to privacy-first, self-custody trading.
According to a press release sent to Invezz, the update follows a year of continuous engineering work and reaffirms the platform’s core values at a time when most of the cryptocurrency industry is shifting towards custodial risk, compelled disclosure, and opaque transaction flows.
Version 4.0 prioritises private value transfer, clearer transaction verification, and increased user control, while continuing ShapeShift’s long-standing commitment to operate without accounts, tracking, or Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.
The DAO-led platform describes the release as a concerted attempt to restore privacy by design across decentralised finance.
Zcash plays a major role
The V4.0 release is centred on the global distribution of Zcash across the ShapeShift platform.
Zcash, long regarded as one of the industry’s most reliable privacy-focused assets, is now the platform’s primary privacy-preserving payment and routing asset.
ShapeShift positions privacy as a default rather than an optional feature by integrating ZEC directly into its wallet and routing stack.
The connection enables users to trade and transfer assets between major blockchain ecosystems, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cosmos, while maintaining full self-custody.
The use of zero-knowledge cryptography built into Zcash aims to bring privacy-preserving technologies into everyday DeFi activity.
ShapeShift’s strategy is to normalise private transactions within multichain trade, rather than seeing them as outliers or advanced features.
Cross-chain execution with NEAR intents
ShapeShift now supports NEAR Intents, a next-generation cross-chain routing mechanism, in addition to Zcash.
NEAR Intents enables users to declare their desired outcome rather than manually maintaining complex execution pathways across many blockchains.
The integration increases the number of viable routing alternatives for ZEC and other supported assets, resulting in faster execution, better liquidity availability, and pricing across dispersed networks.
Importantly, the framework ensures that the user retains custody throughout the transaction process.
ShapeShift intends to simplify cross-chain trading while maintaining transparency and user control, addressing long-standing usability issues in decentralised finance.
Ending blind signing with hardware wallet support
The Version 4.0 upgrade further improves hardware wallet compatibility by including native support for Trezor and GridPlus devices.
The integration enables users to combine hardware wallets into a single decentralised trading environment.
With this upgrade, users can perform multichain swaps directly from cold storage while maintaining full insight into transaction details.
The move is framed as a step toward lessening reliance on blind signing, which has become common in DeFi but limits users’ ability to check on-chain approvals.
ShapeShift wants to address what it characterises as an industry-wide trade-off between security and usability by making transaction verification more transparent.
Reasserting the original Ethos
ShapeShift touts the Zcash integration, NEAR Intents support, and increased hardware wallet compatibility as all part of a coordinated privacy push.
The DAO describes the update as a return to its original ethos: self-sovereignty by default, privacy by design, and decentralisation without compromise.
Houston Morgan, ShapeShift Growth and Community Workstream Leader, stated that blind signing became commonplace because users were forced to pick between security and usability, which he regarded as an industry failure.
He stated that by focusing on Zcash, enabling current hardware wallets, and increasing cross-chain execution, ShapeShift is demonstrating that privacy and clarity can coexist, and that the DAO will enter 2026 as the dominant privacy exchange for the DeFi community.
According to Tim Black, Tokenomics Product Lead at ShapeShift DAO, Version 4.0 lays the groundwork for the addition of more chains, swappers, and features for the community, unlocking renewed momentum for the platform.
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