Ted Livingston9

Ted Livingston is the founder and CEO of Kik, a chat network with more than 240 million registered users founded in 2009. Kik launched Kin, a cryptocurrency to be integrated into the Kik messaging app. He also conceived University of Waterloo’s Velocity Fund, a startup accelerator. Kin has partnered with the Unity Game Development Platform and Engine to build a Software Development Kit (SDK) so that the many games on the Unity platform are able to integrate the earning and spending of Kin within their apps. 

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How Facebook’s Libra is similar in concept and motivation to Kik’s Kin cryptocurrency114
Facebook unveiled its Libra cryptocurrency initiative today, which is part of an alternative financial system (including new subsidiary and wallet ‘Calibra‘) it aims to build alongside industry and academic partners including MasterCard, PayPal, Visa, Uber, Andreessen Horowitz and Creative Destruction Lab. Facebook’s plans for Libra sound ambitious, risky and novel – but a predecessor exists that...
SEC sues Kik for unregistered securities offering42
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued messaging app Kik over their 2017 ICO for its KIN token. Officials allege that the ICO constituted an unregistered securities offering. Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement that Kik “deprived investors of information to which they were legally entitled, and prevented investors from making informed investment deci...
Kin Appeals to Crypto Space for Help with Legal Fees to Fight SEC for Regulatory Clarity3.4
Kin, the cryptocurrency project launched by the firm behind the messaging application Kik, has asked the crypto asset space for donations to fund a potential legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm is hoping that such a lawsuit will help to clarify the legal position of many digital currencies that were launched by initial coin offering (ICO).
Kin Picks a Fight with the SEC in Hopes of Inspiring a New Howey Test15.6
By CCN: The Kin Foundation is attempting to take crypto regulation into its own hands. In an interview with Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast, Ted Livingston, founder of the Kin Foundation and Kik CEO, unveiled the Defend Crypto fund, which is designed to “fight the SEC in court.” The fund, which was launched on Coinbase Custody, is already comprised of $5 million, which was contributed by the f...
Kik claims currencies are not securities; still awaiting SEC’s decision whether to pursue an enforcement action
Back in 2017, messenger app Kik raised $100 million in an initial coin offering (ICO). The U.S. SEC believes the company issued unregistered security. Following Kik’s submission of a Wells Response last December, the SEC is almost out of time to decide whether to pursue an enforcement action against the company, a16z writes.
Fess Up: SEC Goes Easy on Cryptocurrency Companies That Cooperate8
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been cutting deals in recent months with cryptocurrency projects it has deemed to be in violation of the so-called Howey test, a rule-of-thumb for determining whether an asset qualifies as a security and, therefore, must be registered with the agency. I spoke with some of the entrepreneurs who ran afoul of the commission to learn what they might have...
Stay Out: Microsoft’s Bing Blocked Over 5 Million Crypto Ads in 20184
A new report has revealed that Bing, an advertisement and search engine platform owned by Microsoft, blocked over five million crypto-related ads in 2018 alone. The report, which was titled “Ad quality year in review,” was put on the company’s official blog on March 25. The company’s post provided details into its efforts to ensure that its ecosystem was safe for all, particularly for end users an...
The Ledger: ‘ICO’ Settlement Learnings, Apple Card, Bitcoin Trading Faked12
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been cutting deals in recent months with cryptocurrency projects it has deemed to be in violation of the so-called Howey test, a rule-of-thumb for determining whether an asset qualifies as a security and, therefore, must be registered with the agency. I spoke with some of the entrepreneurs who ran afoul of the commission to learn what they might have...
Facecoin To Replace U.S. Dollar? Facebook Claims It’s “Helping People”73.2
We’re all still thinking like regular crypto heads when it comes to what Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has up his sleeve with his stablecoin. The Zuck’s not thinking about just creating his own crypto. He wants to replace the U.S. dollar according to Ted Livingston, who’s developed the reputation of being ahead of the industry in making predictions. Livingston is the founder and CEO of messaging plat...
Crypto Tidbits: VanEck Refiles Bitcoin ETF, Wall Street Giant To Launch Custody4
Contrary to cynical sentiment touted by skeptics of Bitcoin, crypto isn’t dead in the water. As Mike Novogratz, the founder of leading crypto-centric merchant bank Galaxy Digital, “[there’s] tons of activity under the hood.” Over the past week, VanEck & its fellow hopefuls refiled their Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application, while Binance and Fidelity made notable announcements that could...
Watch: Why This Video Could Doom Kik’s SEC Fight16.8
Kik CEO Ted Livingston may have already doomed the chat app’s chances to win its high-profile legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its Kin cryptocurrency, a video uncovered by The Block suggests. Kik’s SEC Gambit As CCN reported, the SEC has sent Kik a “Wells submission,” a prelude to suing the Canadian company for violating securities regulations via its nea...
How Kik’s Looming SEC Fight Could Unfold—and Why It Will Define Blockchain’s Future4
The 2019 season of The Great Blockchain Reality Show has barely started, and the writers are already pulling out the stops; on Monday, the man behind one of the biggest crypto sales of the 2017 bubble declared that he would “fight back” against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The outcome of the battle could move us much closer to answering one of the most important questions in the re...
Kik CEO Ted Livingston challenges the SEC over the legality of the firm’s ICO6
Kik CEO Ted Livingston is looking to go head-to-head with regulators over the designation of his firm’s native cryptocurrency, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Livingston told the WSJ that the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission believes that Kik issued an unregistered security when it sold $100 million worth of “kin” tokens in September 2017.

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