The SEC has screwed ordinary people with its Bitcoin restrictions, Erik Voorhees tells Davos

CRYPTO entrepreneur Erik Voorhees has slammed the SEC for deliberately preventing people from investing in Bitcoin.

The 39-year-old ShapeShift founder was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos this evening where he explained Bitcoin had presented itself as a remarkable investment opportunity for ordinary individuals since 2009.

However, he then tore into the US Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators for not allowing most citizens to take advantage of the financial benefits for 15 years.

"It is like the greatest performing financial asset during that time, and regulators - particularly the SEC in the US - prevented normal retail individuals from buying it with their equity portfolios," he said.

"I can understand the SEC not approving something a year into it being new, but we're into year 15 and millions percent of appreciation happened and that was all precluded from anyone other than the radicals who went out past the normal equity systems and did the work themselves.

"Everyone else got screwed by the SEC and I think that's a horrible injustice and it's a demonstration of the invalidity of the gatekeepers we have today."