Today’s top headlines in the crypto roundup: the SEC files a lawsuit against Kik over the Kin (KIN) ICO, the FBI seeks information from QuadrigaCX victims and Apple unveils CryptoKit as part of iOS upgrade.

The cryptocurrency markets appear to be stabilizing after a market wide sell-off that took most cryptoassets down between -5% and -10% on Monday. At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are trading at $7,831 (-0.55%) and $247 (+0.95%).

The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 3,852.47 (+5.36%). Out of the top 10 cryptoassets by volume Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and TRON (TRX) have held up the best and are up +5.09% and +4.84% respectively in the past 24 hours. Kin (KIN) has suffered a -42.86% drop after news broke that the SEC was suing Kik.

SEC Sues Kik Over 'Illegal' $100 Million ICO

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the filing of a lawsuit against Kik Interactive Inc. wherein it alleges that Kin sold millions of dollars’ worth of unregistered securities as part of its $100 million initial coin offering (ICO).

The lawsuit alleges that Kik’s business model was failing and the ICO was used as “a way to raise capital” and one member of Kik’s board of directors even described the plan as a “hail Mary pass”. In explaining the complaint in a press release, Steven Peikin, a co-director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, stated:

“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. Companies do not face a binary choice between innovation and compliance with the federal securities laws.”

FBI Seeks Information from QuadrigaCX Victims

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and various other U.S. criminal investigative agencies announced they are seeking information from victims of the now-collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, QuadrigaCX.

Specifically, the FBI published a questionnaire for victims to voluntarily complete; asking for information related to personal identification and how QuadrigaCX accounts were used. The Canada-based exchange officially declared bankruptcy on April 8, 2019.

The FBI is conducting the ongoing investigation in collaboration with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

Apple's 'CryptoKit' for iOS 13

Apple is expected to today announce 'CryptoKit', a new framework for iOS 13 that will allow developers to perform cryptographic operations securely and efficiently. According to Apple Developer's CryptoKit developer documentation, CryptoKit will allow developers to integrate operations - such as hashing, key generation, and encryption - into iOS apps. Many commentators believe the CryptoKit is a precursor to the iPhone launching a native crypto wallet.

"CryptoKit frees your app from managing raw pointers," the documentation points out, "and automatically handles tasks that make your app more secure, like overwriting sensitive data during memory deallocation."

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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