SEC Debacle Closes Kik Messaging App and Switch Focus to Kin Cryptocurrency
Kik Interactive, the Candian firm in charge of the Kik messaging app and kin cryptocurrency, has officially announced plans to shut down the Kik app, downsize its workforce from over 100 to just 19 employees and take other measures to ensure the altcoin remains in existence, according to a blog post from Kik Founder and CEO Ted Livingston, September 24, 2019.
Kik Shuts Down
After nearly nine years in existence, the the creators of the Kik messaging app have decided its time to call it quits in a bid to focus more on Kin (Kin), their cryptocurrency project which is the subject of an ongoing legal battle between the firm and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to a blog post by Kik Founder and CEO, Ted Livingston, since the firm embarked on its journey to build a kin-powered economy that fosters financial inclusivity for billions of people, the project has gained significant adoption, “becoming the most used cryptocurrency in the world. By far.”
During the crypto summer of 2017, Kik launched a hugely successful initial coin offering (ICO) that raised nearly $100 million from the sale of kin tokens to more than 10,000 investors around the world.
Fast forward to June 2019 and the SEC decided to drag the Kik team to court, alleging that the social media turned cryptocurrency firm sold unregistered securities to members of the public, without providing them with the vital information they need to make informed investment decisions, in an effort to save itself from an impending financial crisis.
Kik Pleads Not Guilty
After several months of careful planning and building the financial muscle to challenge the SEC’s diktat, Kik finally filed a countersuit against the financial watchdog in August 2019, accusing the agency of twisting facts to make its ICO look like a scam scheme.
Determined to stand its ground and maintain the status of kin as a cryptocurrency rather than a security token that the SEC labels it, the Kik team have decided to shut down the messaging app and downsize its workforce to an elite team of 19.
Kik says its new team will focus exclusively on “converting Kin users to Kin buyers.”
“Together these changes will drop our burn rate by eighty-five percent, putting us in a position to survive the SEC trial with the resources we have,”
Kik’s 19-member team will also be responsible for increasing the capacity of the Kin blockchain network to support a billion users, with a transaction confirmation time of less than a second and develop a mobile wallet to make it easier to buy Kin and explore the ecosystem.
What’s more, the new team has also been given a mandate to accelerate the adoption and growth of Kin, as well as the success of developers in the Kin ecosystem.
At press time the value of Kin (KIN) has crashed by 31 percent, trading at $0.000009, with a market cap of $6,538,308, as seen on CoinMarketCap.
