{"id":18759,"date":"2024-11-20T13:57:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/shaquille-oneal-settles-astrals-nft-investor-lawsuit-for-11-million\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T13:57:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:57:02","slug":"shaquille-oneal-settles-astrals-nft-investor-lawsuit-for-11-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/shaquille-oneal-settles-astrals-nft-investor-lawsuit-for-11-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O&#8217;Neal Settles Astrals NFT Investor Lawsuit for $11 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Basketball legend Shaquille O&#8217;Neal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/nationallawjournal\/2024\/11\/18\/shaq-signs-11-million-settlement-to-resolve-astrals-investor-claims\/?slreturn=2024112052823\">paid<\/a> $11 million to settle a class-action lawsuit from investors of the NFT project Astrals.<\/p>\n<p>On May 23, 2023, during a basketball game at the FTX Arena (renamed Kaseya Center), O&#8217;Neal, who was commentating on the event, was served with a double subpoena. He was accused of promoting the Astrals NFT collection and endorsing the bankrupt exchange FTX.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\n<cite>&#8220;The fortunes of Astrals NFT investors and the value of the tokens are almost entirely tied to O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s celebrity status and the success of his promotional campaigns,&#8221; according to the plaintiffs&#8217; documents.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The plaintiffs emphasized that the Astrals project was O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s brainchild. His son took the position of head of investor relations, and the legendary athlete&#8217;s public image became part of the marketing strategy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/newpfp?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#newpfp<\/a> who dis? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Astrals_NFT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Astrals_NFT<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DzWocnR1GT\">pic.twitter.com\/DzWocnR1GT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SHAQ (@SHAQ) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SHAQ\/status\/1500677822502875140?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 7, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On August 16, 2024, a Miami court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/67416324\/91\/harper-v-oneal\/\">ruled<\/a> that the basketball player did indeed sell non-fungible tokens and suggested that these assets could constitute securities.<\/p>\n<p>According to the plaintiffs&#8217; lawyers, O&#8217;Neal also settled a lawsuit from FTX investors, though the terms of that deal were not disclosed. In both cases, the court has yet to issue a final decision.<\/p>\n<p>Launched in 2022, the Astrals NFT collection included 10,000 character cards based on the works of artist Damien Guimoneau. At the time of writing, the domain hosting the project&#8217;s website is vacant, and the account on X has not posted anything for over a year.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2024, FTX lawyers filed 23 lawsuits in Delaware bankruptcy court against companies and individuals to recover funds for creditors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basketball legend Shaquille O&#8217;Neal paid $11 million to settle a class-action lawsuit from investors of the NFT project Astrals. On May 23, 2023, during a basketball game at the FTX Arena (renamed Kaseya Center), O&#8217;Neal, who was commentating on the event, was served with a double subpoena. He was accused of promoting the Astrals NFT [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[516,1162,1236],"class_list":["post-18759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-advertising","tag-court-cases","tag-ftx"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"28","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}