What does the error message "Location restricted. Unable to complete exchange." mean?

Some of our exchange partners may restrict access to their service based on your location, or where they believe you are located. For example, Shapeshift doesn’t serve the states of Washington or New York, as well as a handful of OFAC embargoed countries.

Geolocation is based on your IP address which is an imperfect measure to determine someone’s location. For instance, our office is San Diego, CA and several staff members cannot use Shapeshift when using T-Mobile cell service. That’s because all T-Mobile customers have Washington state IP addresses, where the T-Mobile headquarters is located.

If you are physically in a supported location, the easiest workaround is to connect to a WiFi network. Our ISP correctly provides our office with a California IP address therefore we are able to use Shapeshift.

If you don’t have access to a WiFi network, you can use a VPN to access an IP address closer to your physical location. There are many free and paid options in the app stores and most offer the ability to choose a specific server close to you. We are not advocating the use of VPNs to circumvent a legitimate location restriction. This advice is for users whose IP address does not match their physical location.

Our long term goal is to work with enough exchange partners so that there is always an opportunity to complete swaps regardless of location.

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