The $4.3 billion lawsuit and the legal whirlwind that Binance is currently going through is no longer news.
However, amid all of the drama with the exchange, it seems that Cristiano Ronaldo, the pro football star and one of the most influential celebrities in the world has been caught in the crossfire.
According to reports, CR7 is facing a class-action lawsuit for his involvement with the exchange.
Ronaldo, being one of the most influential celebrities in the world, has several partnerships with several companies.
In 2022, the football star signed a partnership deal with Binance, to launch a series of NFTs on the Binance Smart Chain.
Ronaldo's partnership with Binance meant that users had to sign up on the exchange and purchase some BNB, to buy/sell these NFTs.
However, investors had other ideas.
According to a lawsuit, filed on Nov. 27 in a Florida district court, Ronaldo's NFTs are in one way or another, unregistered securities.
According to the lawsuit, Ronaldo's NFTs were being used as more than a way to celebrate his achievements and connect with his fans, but also a scheme to promote the aforementioned "unregistered securities".
The plaintiffs, Michael Sizemore, Mikey Vongdara and Gordon Lewis, argued that they suffered losses from investing in Binance's products.
They claim that these losses occurred after they were influenced by Ronaldo's "misleading and deceptive" promotions.
In essence, the plaintiffs are suing CR7 for "promoting, assisting in, and/or actively participating in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance."
The lawsuit also mentions that the SEC's regulations on securities state that Celebrities are required to announce any compensation they receive for promoting crypto or crypto-related securities.
The plaintiffs claim that Ronaldo failed to announce any payments received from Binance, to promote the exchange and its tokens.
The lawsuit also argues that CR7 played a key role in Binance's growing popularity, with nearly a billion followers across social media platforms.
The lawsuit alleges that these Ronaldo NFTs were "incredibly successful", and were responsible for bringing droves of new investors and customers to the exchange.
The plaintiffs also argue that searches for Binance rallied by more than 5 times the week after the NFT sale was announced.
To conclude things, the lawsuit alleges that Ronaldo knew or should have known that Binance was selling "unregistered securities" because he has "investment experience and the resources to employ financial advisers".
Over the last five years, several celebrities have been sued one after the other, over the issue of crypto.
Individuals have come out at intervals and claimed to have lost money due to celebrity crypto endorsements.
Some of these celebrities include Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Jimmy Fallon and David Ortiz, who were (rightly, some would argue) sued for promoting FTX before it went under.
Some other popular examples include the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Ne-Yo, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty, Akon and pornstar, Kendra Lust, for promoting Tron and BitTorrent.
Just like FTX, both Tron and BitTorrent were also served with lawsuits by the SEC for selling unregistered securities shortly after these endorsements.
Finally, we have the likes of Kim Kardashian, Paul Pierce and Floyd Mayweather, who were sued and fined for promoting EthereumMax, a pump-and-dump scheme.
In essence, we can conclude that this current lawsuit has nothing new to it and that we are bound to see more celebrities being dragged to court for promoting crypto.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.