The US-based Blockchain Affiliation has filed an amicus curiae temporary in assist of Canadian messenger Kik amid the agency’s authorized battle with the Securities and Change Fee.
The affiliation addressed the April 17 temporary to the courtroom which is contemplating the case, asking it to disclaim the SEC’s movement for abstract judgment and determine the case narrowly to keep away from casting doubt on cryptocurrency tasks which have but to look earlier than the courtroom.
In March, the SEC requested abstract judgment, claiming that it possessed “undisputed proof” that Kik’s ICO distributed unlicensed securities.
Not the identical as Telegram’s case
Principally, the Blockchain Affiliation says that the courtroom should first decide whether or not Kik’s ICO to accredited buyers and token sale to public patrons had been, in truth, an built-in sale of securities and urges the courtroom to not apply the method taken within the ongoing Telegram case. The temporary reads that:
“Complying with current securities exemptions by contracting with subtle accredited buyers quantities to a ‘scheme’ to distribute unregistered securities to the general public sooner or later sooner or later. The Telegram resolution treats cryptocurrency as someway completely different from each different trade. Following that call might undermine innovation in an necessary new area of expertise whereas excluding an trade from the identical securities legislation exemptions which can be supposed to use uniformly.”
The affiliation additional states that the SEC is ignoring the necessary variations in Kik’s actions and — as in Telegram’s case — has offered little readability about its personal interpretation of whether or not and when digital belongings are securities.
Extra crypto companies face lawsuits
Within the meantime, a number of main crypto firms — Binance, KuCoin, BiBox, BitMEX and mum or dad firm HDR World Buying and selling Restricted, and alleged crypto issuers Block.one, Quantstamp, KayDex, Civic, BProtocol, Standing, and the Tron Basis — are dealing with class-action lawsuits that had been filed in a New York federal courtroom, earlier in April.
The lawsuit alleges that quite a few exchanges have bought unlicensed securities with out broker-dealer licensing and engaged in market manipulation.