Although Kik disagreed with Judge Hellerstein's analysis in his ruling and were prepared to pursue an appeal, the SEC offered settlement terms that allow Kik to put this behind them so they can focus on the work ahead.
As Kik noted in its press release:
"The settlement relates specifically to the 2017 Kin Token Distribution Event and will not require the registration of the Kin token as a security with the SEC. This settlement resolves all ongoing matters between Kik and the SEC."
Although the Kin Foundation was not targeted by the SEC lawsuit, its proximity to Kik led to ongoing uncertainty around its future, the future of the Kin cryptocurrency and the ecosystem around it.
This cloud of uncertainty led many in the market to wonder: Will the Kin Foundation survive a potential Kik legal defeat? Could Kik afford a penalty? Will the SEC target Kik's assets (including the Kin it owns)? Will the SEC label Kin as a security? Can developers continue to use Kin in their apps? Could Kin be prevented from being listed on exchanges?
Following yesterday's mutually agreed settlement, we are pleased that this cloud of uncertainty has dissipated, and the answers to the above questions are either no longer applicable or point to a positive future, ahead.
In a nutshell, Kik is going to be OK. Beyond the monetary fine, Kik's assets are still Kik's property, including its remaining treasury, its Kin reserves, and all of its intellectual capital. With this settlement Kik is able to continue active development on the open source Kin SDK and their new wallet app, Code.
Concurrently, the future of the Kin Foundation is not adversely affected. The SEC has not asked to register Kin as a security, and didn't impose trading restrictions on it. Prior to this settlement there had been questions from exchanges if they could list Kin which hindered Kin's ability to get on top tier exchanges. The judge's ruling in the case and the terms of the settlement make it clear that the Kin cryptocurrency is not in violation of any securities law and should be free to trade on exchanges.
Over the last two years, one of the unfortunate outcomes of this legal battle has been a continuous erosion of Kin's value which made it difficult for Kin to derive a fair market valuation, based on the real economic activity of the Kin ecosystem. Despite these legal headwinds, the Kin Ecosystem was able to develop and grow into an ecosystem of millions of users spending Kin across dozens of independent apps every month.
Going forward, we can enumerate many positive aspects for the Kin Foundation:
- Its reserves that fund the Kin Rewards Engine (KRE) are intact and deep, and it will continue to use them to grow and reward its ecosystem players according to the economic activity and value generated.
- It is on track to hire an Executive Director in November. This person will be a full-time senior individual who will be entirely focused on harnessing the decentralized ecosystem around Kin, while increasing Kin's brand awareness and value in the market.
- The migration to Solana is proceeding on-schedule. New and existing apps will be able to swap SDKs in early December, and there is also a plan for migrating older Kin token users to Solana-based Kin.
- Its online community is strong and supportive, demonstrated by the growing number of services build by independent entrepreneurs
- Increased user generated demand for Kin, at 108% growth month to month.
- An updated website to be unveiled in early November.
- An open path for getting listed on new exchanges that couldn't list us previously.
The Kin Foundation is humbled by the continued support it has received over the past couple of difficult years, and we are looking forward to a brighter future as we focus along with all of our partners and users on further innovation and ecosystem development.
More Content:
