Шакіл О’Ніл. Джерело: Jeffrey Hyde - www.flickr.com
American professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to pay $11 million in compensation to settle a lawsuit filed by the owners of the Astrals NFT collection on the Solana blockchain.
The lawsuit concerned accusations of promoting unregistered securities, which were eventually attributed to the Astrals NFT. According to court documents, as the main public spokesperson for the project, the athlete used his popularity to attract investment in the NFT collection and related tokens.
Astrals’ NFT collection included 10,000 metaverse avatars, as well as a DAO control token called Galaxy (GLXY). The lawsuit was filed after investors suffered losses, including due to the fall of the cryptocurrency and NFT markets after the collapse of the FTX exchange.
As part of the proposed agreement, O’Neill and Astrals-related companies will pay $11 million to compensate investors and cover legal fees. However, the settlement still requires official court approval to be finalized.
Meanwhile, the Astrals NFT page on X has not been maintained since 2023, and the website, although it exists, is not updated either.
Nevertheless, the NFT market is more alive than it seems. In October 2024, sales of these tokens increased to $356 million, which showed growth for the first time in seven months.
Source: Law.com