Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit in the US after promoting the 38-year-old superstar’s non-fungible token (NFT) partnership with online cryptocurrency exchange Binance. society.
As for Binance, the company’s reputation was seriously affected. Last week, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao resigned from the company after pleading guilty to money laundering violations. The US Department of Justice said Binance must pay $4.3 billion in fines and report suspicious activity to federal authorities.
What did Ronaldo do? Ronaldo announced his partnership with Binance in November 2022, creating the “CR7” NFT collection. However, the lawsuit points out the agreement was signed several months earlier.
NFTs are virtual assets based on the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, and can be bought and sold as investments. These digital assets can be purchased online and traded. Associated with this is participation in competitions with prizes, such as the chance to meet Ronaldo.
About two years ago, NFTs were widely touted as the future of fan interaction and the sport. However, the predictions are only exaggerated as most NFTs have decreased in value and are no longer highly applicable.
The lawsuit explains how Ronaldo repeatedly promoted not only his NFTs but also Binance in general on the former Manchester United star’s social media pages.
What crime does the lawsuit accuse Ronaldo of? The lawsuit claims the “overarching goal” of the partnership is for Ronaldo to “help Binance successfully attract or attempt to attract investors in Binance’s cryptocurrency-related securities from Florida and beyond.” all of America”. Besides, the report also confirms that Binance is among the platforms in Cristiano Ronaldo’s “I work with brands I trust” section.
Ronaldo is responsible for losing investors’ money . Investors believe that the fact that CR7 is promoting an NFT collection in partnership with Binance has caused them to misunderstand that crypto assets held on the platform are safe and should not be invested in unregistered securities. Investors blame Ronaldo for knowing and even understanding the things surrounding Binance promotion activities.
The report quotes, “after news of Ronaldo’s newly created NFT collection with Binance became public, online searches for NFT-related search terms skyrocketed, including including searches using the keyword ‘Binance’ increased by 500%”.
Once users have signed up for Binance to access Ronaldo’s NFTs and related benefits, the lawsuit argues, they are more likely to invest in Binance for other purposes. This includes purchasing cryptocurrency tokens that are not officially regulated by financial regulators. Therefore, investors in Binance are suing Ronaldo and demanding $1 billion in damages.
What will happen next? Jemma Fleetwood, a lawyer specializing in digital assets at JMW Solicitors, confirmed: “ Ronaldo will likely discuss with his legal advisers whether the claim is legally valid and how to defend it. What will happen and should Ronaldo make an offer to resolve the case ?
“ Given the level of damages sought, it may be difficult for him to resolve this case at an early stage and the matter may have to appear in court, where the parties will give public evidence about the case “, Fleetwood added.
Similar case Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal was accused in two separate lawsuits of promoting unregistered securities as part of a sponsorship agreement with cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Fleetwood says O’Neal and Ronaldo aren’t the only ones. The female lawyer shared: “ There have been similar cases against boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, along with music producer DJ Khaled, for failing to disclose payments received from promoting money services. initial coin (ICO). Mayweather and Khaled previously settled that case for about $750,000.
Ronaldo may similarly attempt to settle the claims against him to avoid a public trial, escalating legal costs and spending significant time preparing court documents .
The big picture Over the past few years, cryptocurrency companies have worked with many football players and clubs to promote products. The reason lies in the fact that football is considered the best way to advertise to men – who tend to be especially interested in king sports and cryptocurrency.
Despite the hype of cryptocurrency prices when they started to explode during the pandemic, making some people rich very quickly, things are now back to normal. Token prices plummeted and top football clubs and players saw the tokens they promoted lose value.
There are currently very few football players still advertising cryptocurrency products on their personal pages, including two contemporary football superstars Ronaldo and Messi. The duo “Si-Ro” advertises for many cryptocurrency companies.
There is no information indicating that Messi’s advertising programs are illegal. As mentioned in Ronaldo’s case, the Portuguese superstar is in trouble. Cristiano Ronaldo’s representative did not comment on the allegations. While Binance has not publicly responded.
