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Messaging giant Kik has announced that it is handing over Defend Crypto to the Blockchain Association.
In May 2019, Kik launched Defend Crypto – a new campaign to fund a potential legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It said at the time that it was setting aside $5 million with Coinbase for the initiative, which also gained support from ShapeShift, Arrington XRP Capital, and others.
Kik is now handing over the initiative to the Blockchain Association with the intent to allow for a more objective use of resources.
In a post on Medium, Kik’s Tanner Philp explained what this development is all about and why it is handing off the money it raised under Defend Crypto campaign to another organization.
“We are excited to announce that the Defend Crypto fund will be governed by the Blockchain Association. They have been a strong advocate for the industry — led by a strong team and backed by some of the most important builders in the space — and will be in the best position to objectively allocate the resources to the highest impact initiatives,” the post reads.
As to why there was even a need to come up with this fund, to begin with, Philp also went into detail on that as well. Its battle with the SEC has basically motivated Kik to try and make its case into a global initiative for broader protections against those being targeted by government forces.
“What has been most impactful since launching Defend Crypto is that it started a discussion. The SEC has been very effective in keeping everyone in different corners of the room, making it feel like their challenges with the SEC are unique to them, like they are going it alone,” the post reads.
Last month, the SEC sued Kik Interactive, the company behind the chat platform Kik, for conducting an illegal $100 million securities offering of digital tokens in 2017. It alleged that the company had predicted to run out of money in 2017 and sought to pivot to a new business, which was funded through the token sale.
In response, Kik's CEO Ted Livingston said that they were already expecting such enforcement action from the SEC, adding that the SEC's complaint was a “highly selective and grossly misleading picture” of the facts and circumstances surrounding the 2017 pre-sale and token distribution event.
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