Kik Interactive Lays Off Developers, Shuts Down the Messenger

Kik Interactive CEO Ted LIVINGSTON announced on Monday that Kik Interactive is shutting down its main messenger service. This happened after reports that a subsidiary fired 70 employees amid a lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was reported on the company's blog.

Livingston noted that the company is reducing its crypto operations to 19 major developers to “ensure that KIN can scale to become the true currency of the internet going forward.”

According to the CEO, it is too early to give up:

“Kin has over 2,000,000 monthly active earners, and 600,000 monthly active spenders,” Livingston said. “While losing Kik will have a big impact on these numbers, the continued growth of the Kin Ecosystem has more than made up for it.”

Livingston also noted that the core team is actively working on the development of the KIN token:

“Kin is a currency used by millions of people in dozens of independent apps. So, while the SEC might be able to push us around, taking on the broader Kin Ecosystem will be a much bigger fight. And the Ecosystem is close to adding a lot more firepower.”

Kik is currently continuing a dispute with the SEC over the 2017 initial coin offering of KIN token. ICO raised $100 million, which, according to the SEC, was an unregistered security offering. Since the SEC’s allegations in June, the KIN token has fallen from $0.000036 to $0.000009 to date. Over the past day, against the backdrop of negative news, the token has fallen by 31%.