Bitcoin Daily: SEC Lawsuit Accuses Kik Of Illegal ICO; New Crypto Malware Strikes In US, Thailand

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Kik Interactive for allegedly conducting an illegal $100 million securities offering of digital tokens.

The agency has accused Kik of selling the tokens to investors without registering its offers and sales as required by law.

“By selling $100 million in securities without registering the offers or sales, we allege that Kik deprived investors of information to which they were legally entitled, and prevented investors from making informed investment decisions,” said Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a press release.  “Companies do not face a binary choice between innovation and compliance with the federal securities laws.”

Robert A. Cohen, chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit added, “Kik told investors they could expect profits from its effort to create a digital ecosystem. Future profits based on the efforts of others is a hallmark of a securities offering that must comply with the federal securities laws.”

In other news, researchers from Trend Micro have revealed that there is a new crypto malware spreading across the U.S. and Thailand. The malware — dubbed BlackSquid — uses numerous web server exploits and brute-force attacks to download and installs XMRig, a Monero cryptocurrency miner, according to The Next Web.

The researchers explained that BlackSquid uses eight known exploits, including EternalBlue, DoublePulsar, three server security flaws and three web application vulnerabilities. It also utilizes anti-virtualization, anti-debugging and anti-sandboxing to remain hidden, and will only install itself if it can remain undetected.

Amsterdam-based crypto exchange Blockport has declared bankruptcy after failing to reach its soft cap of €1 million ($1.13 million) in May.

“Since our first equity fundraising (STO) round was unsuccessful, we can’t uphold our planned growth trajectory and, therefore, have to significantly scale down our operations and team,” Blockport Founder Sebastiaan Lichter told The Next Web.