Kik Backs Away From Jury Trial Request in SEC Fight Over $100M Token Sale

The Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) and Kik are pushing for a speedy decision to their ongoing authorized battle, with each claiming the opposite has supplied inadequate proof to assist their case.

In a movement for abstract judgment filed on the District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, the SEC claimed Kik had failed to offer any “cognizable protection” for why it had not registered its kin token sale – which raised a complete of $100 million in 2017 – with the regulator.

The SEC claims Kik bought tokens to traders on the understanding they might see a return – a key authorized attribute of a securities providing – via increasing utility in a rising token ecosystem. Within the submitting, the regulator cites situations the place CEO Ted Livingstone steered the kin worth would seemingly enhance in worth.

The regulator additionally refutes Kik’s claims that half its sale was solely for accredited traders, arguing that little effort was made to tell apart it from its public sale, with no restrictions on accredited traders promoting newly-acquired kin tokens on the open market.

“This can be a simple case wherein Kik’s funding scheme and violation of Part 5 are simply recognized,” reads the SEC’s submitting. Though the Ontario-based firm claims it doesn’t come below the SEC’s jurisdiction, the regulator says it made itself liable by promoting to U.S. residents.

Established in 2009, the agency supposed kin tokens to work as a part of a token economic system built-in into its messaging app. The corporate claimed it hadn’t hosted an unregistered securities sale because the SEC first took motion in early 2018. Relations between the 2 sides have deteriorated, with Kik claiming the SEC “twisted info” about its token sale in 2019.

In its movement for abstract judgment, Kik argues that, opposite to the SEC’s allegations, it adopted U.S. securities laws to the letter. The agency says it hosted two gross sales: a pre-sale spherical for accredited traders, to lift funds for creating the Kin ecosystem, and a second public sale to distribute tokens to customers.

Kik claims to have filed a Kind D discover for the pre-sale in September 2017, exempting it from registering the providing with the SEC. The corporate additionally argues that its second sale, open to the general public, was not a securities providing as a result of Kik didn’t promise returns on funding or supply contractual obligations to traders.

Kin tokens had been additionally supposed to turn into a brand new type of foreign money which, by regulation, are explicitly not categorized as securities. This, Kik says, is in step with what different U.S. regulatory our bodies, just like the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) and Inside Income Service (IRS), have dominated in classifying cryptocurrencies as commodities.

By disregarding key features of the sale and the character of the token, Kik says the SEC is stepping exterior of its remit: “The SEC asks this Courtroom to bless an unprecedented and dramatic enlargement of the SEC’s regulatory authority.”

As not too long ago as January of this 12 months, Kik had once more been pushing for a jury trial to make its case that its ICO was not the truth is illegal. And final summer time, Livingston mentioned the SEC criticism “presents a extremely selective and grossly deceptive image of the info and circumstances surrounding our 2017 pre-sale and token distribution occasion. We stay up for presenting the complete story in court docket.”

Abstract judgments are often granted in instances the place a choose deems the result to be a foregone conclusion and subsequently not price taking to full trial. Nonetheless, it’s common apply for defendants to file motions for abstract judgments, even when the prospect of success is comparatively slim.

Each events filed their motions for abstract judgment final Friday.

See additionally: Kik Sells Messaging App, Reaffirms Kin Crypto Integration