SEC in the Red Corner, Kik in the Black Corner

It has been exactly two years since Ted Livingston and the Kik team raised $100 million in the Kin token distribution event with over 10,000 participants from 117 countries.[1] However, now the future of the Kin token faces an entirely different reality.

Kik’d Down and Out

After some back and forth, Ted Livingston announced this week via Medium.com that the Kik messaging app will be shutting down. Furthermore, Livingston accused the SEC of manipulating the public by using his quotes against him, and by intending to drag the court case so much as to drain Kik of its resources. Additionally, Livingston said that the SEC has pressured exchanges to not list Kin.[2]

In the same Medium article, Livingston also announced that Kik would be reducing its staff from 120 employees down to 19 “elite” employees.

In what is either a horrible case of wishful thinking or an out-and-out misstatement to the public, according to Livingston, Kin is here to stay. Livingston says Kin has over 2 million monthly users and 600,000 monthly transactions; the most widely used cryptocurrency in the world… “by far.”

Livingston said that his confidence in Kin is only growing, especially now with three new goals:

1. To get 12 billion Kin transactions per day with sub 1 second confirmation times;

2. Accelerate the growth of developers in the Kin ecosystem;

3. To build a Kin wallet that will make buying and selling Kin easier.

Mr. Livingston, I have a goal to be the world’s first 50-year-old E-Sports champion. However, I have doubts on the fulfillment of our collective aspirations. Honey Badger don’t care; the SEC does (not about my E-Sports aspirations).

Photo by Robert Hoffmann on Unsplash

What does this mean?

It means don’t screw around with the US securities laws. Don’t be cute on how you spin things. Don’t be Honey Badger.

We also know that Ted Livingston is not backing down, and he’s building a mobile wallet.