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Waterloo-based Kik Interactive Inc. is shutting down its signature chat app and laying off most of its staff in order to focus on a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s chief executive officer said in a blog post Monday.

Ted Livingston said he was reducing the number of employees from more than 100 to 19.

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The U.S. regulator has sued the company, alleging that it conducted an unregulated sale of securities when it raised around US$100 million in 2017 through an initial coin offering for its nascent cryptocurrency, Kin.

“We are all in. And despite these hard decisions my confidence in Kin only continues to grow,” Livingston said in his post. “Together we will show the power of the Kin Ecosystem. Together we will get millions of people to buy Kin to use it. And together we will build a new economy that offers equal opportunity to billions of people. Together we will win.”