The Federal government’s hammer is a big hammer that moves slow, but when it comes down it comes down hard. Kik is currently experiencing the full weight of the SEC.
Of all places for an action to transpire, an ICO would want to avoid the Southern District of New York. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y.), known informally as The Mother Court, is a federal district court that houses many of the brightest legal minds in the world.
According to the Kik lawsuit, Kik CEO Ted Livingston held multiple “meetups” in NYC promoting the Kin ICO and subsequently raised capital from investors in NY. This created a nexus to NY that gave S.D.N.Y. jurisdiction.
Are ICOs investments that should be classified as securities?
It appears that many individuals that raised money from their ICOs are strongly avoiding getting classified as selling an investment. That being said, the SEC has made salient arguments for why ICOs should be classified as securities in the Kik case.
