Kik Raises $100 Million Through its Kin Token Distribution Event

Kik Interactive, the parent of mobile web messaging service Kik Messenger, announced on Tuesday (September 26) the completion of its initial coin offering for the Kin token distribution event (TDE). As such, the token event marks Kik as the “highest profile ICO company” out of all the companies that have raised substantial amounts of money in ICO’s.
According to the company’s press release, Kik raised roughly $100 million with the help of over 10,000 people from 117 countries who participated in the sale, which–according to the announcement– “immediately makes Kin one of the most widely held cryptocurrencies in the world.”
Prior to the event–which took place on September 12–Kik closed a presale round of funding in late August, totaling $50 million from investors such as Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital and Poloychain Capital. Together with that funding, Kik’s initial target was to raise a total $125 million through the Kin Token Distribution event.

That said, despite slightly missing its targeted amount, Ted Livingston, founder and CEO of Kik, was still satisfied with the company’s goal.
“We wanted as many people as possible to participate in the Kin token distribution event. Based on the outpouring of support leading up to and during the event, we clearly achieved that goal,” Livingston said. “We envision Kin as the foundation for a decentralized ecosystem of digital services, starting with Kik, and we couldn’t be more thrilled than to build this new future together with you.”
As highlighted in the press release, Kin is an ERC20 token on the ethereum blockchain, which will then merge with Kik as its primary transaction currency.
On that note, it goes without saying that ICOs have been all the rage this year. Roughly $2 billion has been raised since the beginning of 2017, data from Coindesk’s ICO tracker shows, compared to the $256 million raised in 2016.
In terms of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin has certainly made headlines this year, with a market cap of $69 billion and token price of $4,165.87.  Second is ethereum, whose market cap is $28.7 billion at $303.08 per token, according to data from coinmarketcap.com.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.