According to a fresh report from an Israeli tech publication, the popular messaging application Kik could soon shut down. The reason? Supposedly to focus on its crypto ambitions, as the company faces ICO-related difficulties.

Kik will shut down its messaging app to focus on Kin

This report first came on September 23rd, in the Israeli publication CTech Calcalistic. At the time, this report would only cite two anonymous sources at Kik. Specifically, these sources suggested that the Canadian messaging firm was considering shutting down its popular messaging application.

Now, Kik’s CEO has responded to these rumors with an official blog post. This blog post came as somewhat of a shock, as it confirmed that Kik would shut down its Kik application. Moreover, the firm will also focus on fighting the SEC in court.

This decision is seen by many as shocking, considering that Kik is one of the largest application in the United States. Furthermore, the application is also reportedly growing. The headcount of Kik will furthermore be trimmed down to an “elite 19 person team”, according to the blog post.

With that said, it is clear that the leadership behind Kik is now doubling down on the development of the company’s crypto, Kin. The blog post strongly suggests that the former Kik team will now be able to focus on Kin, rather than the messaging application.

“But no matter what happens to Kik, Kin is here to stay. Kin operates on an open, decentralized infrastructure run by a dozen independent companies. Kin is a currency used by millions of people in dozens of independent apps. So while the SEC might be able to push us around, taking on the broader Kin Ecosystem will be a much bigger fight. And the Ecosystem is close to adding a lot more firepower.”

Kik has been in trouble with the SEC following a controversial ICO

This comes as Kik has already faced a myriad of legal troubles due to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This has been the case ever since the SEC sued the Canadian messaging firm for an allegedly unregistered token offering.

It will now be especially interesting to see how things develop, as the messaging service will face off against the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is also cited as the reason behind Kik’s dramatic downsizing, which has reportedly already led around 70 employees to receive layoff notices.

According to the firm, the SEC lacks the proper evidence to be legally persecuting the firm. Additionally, Kik also says that it will aim to accelerate the “adoption, growth, and success of all developers in the Kin Ecosystem”.

The firm also intends to make it easier to use Kin, mainly through building a mobile wallet for the cryptocurrency.