SEC is suing Kik for allegedly running an unregistered securities sale when it launched an ICO for its Kin token in 2017
Following the announcement of a lawsuit … Adrian Barkley / Crypto Daily : How Valid Is The SECs Suit Against Kik? Jasmine Solana / CoinGeek : SEC lawsuit accuses Kik of conducting illegal $100M ICO Teuta Franjkovic / Coinspeaker : SEC Accusing Kik for Illegal ICO, and They May Be Right Seth Goldfarb / CryptoSlate : SEC sues Kik for unregistered securities offering Matthew Beedham / The Next Web : Kik CEO: ‘Buy today, sell tomorrow, profit’ — SEC: 'Nope, that's illegal' William M. Peaster / Blockonomi : The SEC Goes to War with Kik over Kin Token Offering: Key Takeaways Matthew Willemsen / CryptoGlobe : SEC Sues Kik; FBI, Multiple U.S. Investigative Agencies Circle QuadrigaCX Tom McKay / Gizmodo : SEC Sues Messaging App Kik Over $100 Million Initial Coin Offering Aislinn Keely / The Block : ‘Hail Mary Pass:’ SEC sues Kik for non-compliant securities sale in its $100 million ICO PYMNTS.com : Bitcoin Daily: SEC Lawsuit Accuses Kik Of Illegal ICO; New Crypto Malware Strikes In US, Thailand Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE : SEC sues Kik alleging that ‘initial coin offering’ of Kin tokens was illegal Leo Jakobson / modernconsensus.com : Kik hit with SEC securities lawsuit over its $100 million ICO Charles Bovaird / Forbes : Bitcoin Approaches $7,500 As Crypto Markets See Red Rick D. / NewsBTC : SEC Sues Kik Over Illegal Security Token Kin, The Outcome Could Change Crypto Forever Anycoin.news : SEC предъ явила иск … Tweets: Ted Livingston / @ted_livingston : The SEC just filed a lawsuit against Kik for our 2017 sale of Kin https://www.sec.gov/... We are finally on the path to getting the clarity our industry so desperately needs. We are excited to take on the SEC in court, and are confident we will win. It is time to #defendcrypto Palley / @stephendpalley : SEC v. KIK: One of the challenges inherent in defending an SEC investigations is that they give the commission the ability to do significant discovery before filing a lawsuit, as this one shows. If you poke the bear better have bear proof arguments to muster in response. pic.twitter.com/c4nhr9wfXh Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : The SEC is suing Kik over its ICO. Is this the most high profile action yet against an ICO? https://www.sec.gov/... pic.twitter.com/LPwyc8jDnJ Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : It's interesting to compare how Kik board member @fredwilson described the ICO (a move towards decentralization) vs. how the SEC describes it (a hail mary bailout). pic.twitter.com/PZYuIH6Y1C Scott Kupor / @skupor : I am sure this is a challenging time for @ted_livingston and team, but do hope that this results in the crypto industry as a whole having greater clarity around the regulatory ecosystem https://twitter.com/... @lord_of_crypto : IMO the resolution of this case is irrelevant to #Crypto in the macro. This case will be fought for years and in the meantime the US has cemented its position as not-crypto-friendly Innovation will continue abroad - mainly Asia / Europe - as US loses its global position 👋👋 https://twitter.com/... Bloomberg Crypto / @crypto : LATEST: The SEC has sued Kik for illegally raising $100 million through a 2017 initial coin offering, in one of its highest profile cases targeting a crypto firm for not registering a token sale with the regulator https://www.bloomberg.com/... Marc Boiron / @boironattorney : In this press release, @Kik keeps missing the point: the current use of Kin (or anything else in the present Kin ecosystem) is irrelevant to the SEC's case, which is focused on 2017 events and facts. https://www.prnewswire.com/... Simon Yu / @simonyusea : 1- What's unfortunate about the Kik case is that they were one of the companies that actually had users and continued to improve their blockchain tech. I can probably name a long list of companies that did nothing post ICO and just closed shop that should be sued instead. https://twitter.com/... Ted Livingston / @ted_livingston : Our response to SECs filing: https://www.prnewswire.com/... To summarize: they have backed off commenting on anything about how Kin is being used today, they have flawed legal arguments on the original Kin sale, and they are bending the facts to tell a story that is grossly misleading Chase Barker / @therealchaseeb : To me, the most interesting part of this is the “SEC chose not to name the Kin Foundation or assert any claims based on Kin transactions occurring after Kik's 2017 pre-sale and token distribution event”. This very promising to hear. $kin #kin https://twitter.com/... Udi Wertheimer / @udiwertheimer : Palley's look into the SEC vs. KIK document highlights the way that Kik and its VCs think of “crypto investors”: a pool of idiots who made some money by accident, which should be relatively easy to extract. Now they come running back, begging for *more* support? NOPE NOPE NOPE https://twitter.com/... @theregister : So like this is exactly why @HBO's Silicon Valley is, like, very funny, but hard to watch because it's like all too, like, real. Here's Kik's CEO quoted by the SEC in its cryptocurrency complaint against the biz. Just cut'n'paste this into the next script https://www.sec.gov/... https://twitter.com/... Udi Wertheimer / @udiwertheimer : The Kin tokens are one of the most obvious cases of unregistered security sales in recent years. Kik and its cynical VC investors knew exactly what they were doing, and didn't care. Now their “#DefendCrypto” initiative is designed to take the entire industry down with them. https://twitter.com/... Katherine Wu / @katherineykwu : Remember that unlike the other ICO cases, Kik has refused to settle, which means that this case is going to a JURY trial @ the SDNY ps for ppl being like ‘why are you excited’ UM if you don't think this is gonna have a serious legal impact on US-based token model businesses i— Parker / @pt : It's good to see SEC action on these, particularly for tokens that have no purpose that could not be achieved by integrating existing tokens. Thoughts on why the Kin ICO was so bad for investors: https://link.medium.com/... https://twitter.com/... Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : “Throughout Kik's 2017 offering and sale of Kin, the decentralized economy that Kik had marketed did not exist. In addition, when Kik distributed Kin on September 26, 2017, no one - not even Kik - offered goods or services in return for Kin. ” https://www.sec.gov/... Joe Weisenthal / @thestalwart : God, this is brutal. It's painful to see tech bro speak actually written out like this. See how far you can get into the comments from the CEO without having to stop reading... pic.twitter.com/WQzp1iBDr1 Crypto Loomdart / @loomdart : Probably one of the larger (more known) ICOs to be sued. One that can't instantly be labelled as *a scam*. Will be interesting to watch. https://twitter.com/...