Court Approves Settlement in Shaquille O’Neal’s NFT Project Lawsuit

Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal has received final court approval for the settlement of a class-action lawsuit by investors in the NFT project Astrals.

Florida federal judge Federico Moreno confirmed the settlement between the defendant and a group of plaintiffs led by Daniel Harper.

The agreement resulted in the creation of an $11 million fund to satisfy the claimants’ demands. An additional $2.9 million was awarded to cover legal fees and attorney costs.

All investors who purchased NFTs from the collection or native GLXY tokens since May 2022 are eligible for compensation.

In May 2023, a lawsuit was filed against O’Neal due to his involvement in the creation and promotion of Astrals. The project was accused of offering and selling unregistered securities.

Investors claimed they suffered losses due to O’Neal’s “conduct” in promoting Astrals’ assets.

In August 2024, Judge Moreno ruled that the former basketball player indeed sold NFTs and suggested that these assets might constitute securities. In November, O’Neal agreed to a settlement.

Released in April 2022 on Solana, the Astrals collection consists of 10,000 3D avatars as non-fungible tokens. OpenSea data shows that there have been no asset sales for nearly two years.

In the first quarter of 2025, NFT segment trading volume reached $1.5 billion, a 24% decrease compared to the previous period, according to a report by DappRadar.

In April, one of the largest global bitcoin exchanges, Bybit, and the Russian social network VKontakte announced the closure of their non-fungible token marketplaces.