Long Live the KIN
Tags: Kin Cryptocurrency, Crypto, Cryptocurrency

Altered from the theatrical release poster for the Lion King, by John Alvin

The News is in: KiK Settles with the SEC regarding Kin. Can I get a “Hellsyeah?”

The long nightmare is over.

No, I’m not talking about the election.

What I am talking about is the recently settled court case of Kik v. the SEC. The court case hinged around an unregistered “Kin” token sale in 2017 that raised $100 million dollars. The short of it is that the SEC won the case, and instead of going for an appeal, Kik Interactive decided, much as EOS and SIA did, to settle.

This is a prudent decision.

Kik’s initial action to fight the SEC was to force the court to create a legal precedent regarding the SEC’s regulatory overreach in the blockchain industry. When the SEC’s position was instead reinforced by the court’s decision, whether to settle simply becomes a business decision — continue as a company, or die in the throes of fighting a battle that Kik alone cannot win.

It would require the resources, and the deeper pockets of, say, a Polychain Capital, a Coinbase, or a Kraken. All of whom were members of the Blockchain Association.

And while the Blockchain Association filed an Amicus Curiae in support of Kik, the SEC made the unusual request that the court deny this brief based on the Blockchain Association not being “objective, dispassionate [or] neutral…” party in respect to Kik.

Which I find sorta funny given that an Amicus Curiea, or “friend of the court” is:

“A person with strong interest in or views on the subject matter of an action, but not a party to the action, may petition the court for permission to file a brief, ostensibly on behalf of a party but actually to suggest a rationale consistent with its own views.” ~ from thefreedictionary.com

For an Amicus, in my opinion, their brief is in support of their subject; they are not neutral.

Anyways…the deed is done. Kik pays $5 million of its so-called illegal token sale, and has to notify the SEC before any future token sales.

$5 million may sound like a lot, which it is, but remember that their initial token sale netted them $100 million dollars. A 5% fine is the equivalent to a slap on the wrist.

$95 million remaining. Subtract lawyer fees for a 2 year legal fight, and you might still have enough to make a go of things.

What the future holds

After the decision to settle, the price went from a low of $0.000004 USD on Oct 20, 2020 to $0.000039 on Oct 26, 2020 (currently $0.000025)

…nearly a 10 bagger for those that bought at the low. I imagine that most Kin hodlers have held for the long-term downward trend, so it’s iffy if any HODLers came out ahead.

Future Perfect

The gist of it is: The news is in. There’s no more uncertainty in the outcome of the case. The uncertainty that kept the price submerged, and also kept Kin from being listed on any major exchanges, is no more.

Kin has hit bottom, and the only way left is up.

Kin is moving ahead on its 4th (and hopefully final) blockchain migration to Solana. This is in order to handle the increased scale of the Kin ecosystem.

And from the stats, the project is alive and kicking:

This is all well and good, but what about the Price?!

After the initial 10x pump, the price of Kin has settled down to around $0.000025. At its height on Jan 6th, 2018, Kin was priced $0.001338 USD. If Kin again reaches its all time high (ATH) this would result in an over 52x increase.

What could drive this?

Well, a listing on a major exchange, such as Coinbase, would do a heck of a lot to drive the FOMO, and a retest of the ATH. Remember, once upon the time in 2019, Kin was selected to be a part of Coinbase Custody.

To be listed on Coinbase Custody was once considered to be a precursor to an actual exchange listing.

For example, back in October 2018, XRP was listed on Coinbase Custody. By February 2019, XRP was listed on the Coinbase exchange.

Five months later.

Kin was listed in Coinbase Custody in April of 2019, right in the midst of their battle with the SEC.

Can a Coinbase listing be far behind?

Remember that Coinbase used to be one of the members of the Blockchain Association (before Binance joined), the same group that filed an Amicus Curiae brief in support of Kin in their court case. And now that the case is settled, exchanges no longer have their hands tied, no longer awaiting the outcome of a legal case.

Can a KIN moonshot be far behind?