Shaquille O’Neal to pay $11m NFT lawsuit settlement

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to pay $11 million in a settlement with the Astrals NFT assortment to resolve a lawsuit filed by holders.

Corridor-of-Famer O’Neal reached the settlement following allegations that he promoted unregistered securities associated to Astrals’ non-fungible token undertaking on Solana (SOL). In response to court docket paperwork, O’Neal, as the gathering’s primary movie star, used his fame to draw investments in Astral’s NFTs.

The lawsuit highlights the inflow of popular culture figures into web3 areas through the NFT growth in 2019. Nonetheless, the market downturn in 2022 and 2023 left many buyers with devalued tokens and taking out their frustration on Discord servers.

O’Neal famously shared the Wolf of Wall Avenue meme “I am not leaving” on Astrals’ Discord, encouraging holders to not promote their tokens whilst bankruptcies like FTX sparked a broader decline in digital foreign money and NFT markets led to. . Astral’s NFT buyers in the end filed a category motion lawsuit towards O’Neal in a Florida district court docket. Regardless of his efforts to keep away from subpoenas and dismiss the case, the court docket proceeded with the motions.

Miami District Choose Federico Moreno dominated that Astral’s NFTs functioned as securities below the regulation. The assertion additionally referred to Galaxy, a decentralized autonomous group that O’Neal had beforehand promoted.

The $11 million settlement awaits Choose Moreno’s approval to turn into binding. If authorized, the funds will permit buyers to recuperate losses and canopy authorized prices.

Elsewhere, O’Neil can also be a part of a consolidated lawsuit associated to the controversial FTX crypto change. A choice of celebrities, together with O’Neil and Tom Brady, starred in Tremendous Bowl adverts and different FTX promotional affords.