Kik ‘here to stay’ as regulators try to stifle firm’s crypto project

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Kik announced in September that it would shut down its messaging platform as a result of an ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It later stated that it would continue to fight regulators who were suing over its initial coin offering (ICO) and accompanying Kin cryptocurrency, and the company has now dug itself in for the long haul. Not only is it going to continue its fight, but it’s also going to make a return with a bigger and better messaging app.

Kik announced via Twitter its resurgence on Sunday, explaining, “Great news: Kik is here to stay!!!! AND there’s some really exciting plans for making the app even better. More details coming soon. Stay tuned.”

Great news: Kik is here to stay!!!!AND there’s some really exciting plans for making the app even better. More details coming soon. Stay tuned. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

— Kik (@Kik) October 13, 2019

The SEC is suing the company after it introduced the ICO, which garnered around $100 million in support. The government agency has accused Kik of offering an unregistered security and the fallout has been swift and vicious. Kik went from 151 employees to only 19 in a matter of days and led to the closure of the Kik X beta platform at the end of last month.

Kik CEO Ted Livingston touched upon a revitalization of the platform earlier this month, but didn’t provide a lot of details. He said on his Twitter feed, “Some exciting news: we may have found a home for Kik! We just signed an LOI [letter of intention] with a great company. They want to buy the app, continue growing it for our millions of users, and take the Kin integration to the next level. Not a done deal yet, but could be a great win win [sic]. More soon.”

Some exciting news: we may have found a home for Kik! We just signed an LOI with a great company. They want to buy the app, continue growing it for our millions of users, and take the Kin integration to the next level. Not a done deal yet, but could be a great win win. More soon https://t.co/SeLjf9bEaG

— Ted Livingston (@ted_livingston) October 7, 2019

The company had intended to continue working on its Kin currency, despite the attack from the SEC. However, the shutdown of the Kik messaging platform, and the negative attention drawn in from the commission’s suit, didn’t do much to shore up Kin’s value. The announcement that the platform is coming back to life might help to restore confidence, but it’s going to be a long uphill climb.

Livingston is positive that it will come back to life without any major issues. When the company announced its downsizing, he stated, “[N]o 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.”