Canadian messenger firm Kik is seeking pre-trial summary judgment in its legal dispute with the U.s. Securities and Substitution Commission (SEC) over the company's $100 one thousand thousand initial money offer (ICO) in 2022.

On March 20, Kik submitted a memorandum of police force requesting the summary judgment from the court, asserting that the SEC had failed to demonstrate that its KIN tokens comprised unlicensed securities.

Kik expects legal victory with summary judgment

Referring to its public sale equally a token distribution event (TDE) rather than an ICO, Kik argues that its KIN tokens fail to meet two of the iii requirements for a security as articulated in the 'Howey Exam'.

Firstly, Kik argues that its TDE did not course a "common enterprise" between the company and the purchasers of its tokens — arguing that the terms of auction only obliged Kik to deliver the tokens and that it "had absolutely no control over the tokens" one time issued.

Kik likewise asserts that information technology exclusively promoted its Kin tokens as a medium of exchange rather than as an investment opportunity:

"the SEC cannot show that Kin purchasers were led to expect profits from the essential managerial and entrepreneurial efforts of Kik or others, equally Howey requires. The undisputed facts show that Kik promoted Kin as a medium of commutation to be used in a new digital economy, not as an investment opportunity."

SEC claims 'undisputed evidence' that KIN are securities

On the same day, the SEC filed a request for summary judgment, claiming that information technology possesses "undisputed prove" that Kik's ICO distributed unlicensed securities.

Co-ordinate to the SEC, Kik blatantly told investors that KIN prices increase alongside growing need for the tokens — for which the issuer promised to "undertake crucial work to spur that demand."

"Kik's 2022 offer and auction of Kin was an offer and sale of investment contracts to the public, which was not registered with the SEC, and for which there was no exemption from registration under the act," the SEC argued.

Both parties wait victory through pre-trial judgment

Curiously, both the SEC and Kik appear extremely confident that they will win the case in a summary judgment.

While Kik believes that information technology just sold tokens to accredited investors and that its sale was exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act, the SEC describes the dispute every bit "a straightforward case in which Kik's investment scheme and violations of Section v are hands identified."