Court approves $11m settlement in Shaquille O’Neal’s Astrals NFT lawsuit

A judge of the Federal Court of Florida approved a regulation of $ 11 million between the buyers of Shaquille O’Neal and Astrals NFT, putting an end to a collective appeal on an alleged promotion of unregistered titles.

According to a court order public rendering On April 8, judge Federico Moreno gave the green light to the agreement, which puts aside up to $ 11 million for eligible buyers and included $ 2.9 million in lawyer fees.

The case, led by the applicant Daniel Harper, covered anyone who bought astrals NFTS between May 2022 and January 15 or picked up the GLXY tokens of the project during this period.

The trial, first filed in May 2023Accused O’Neal of using its celebrity status to promote the ASTRALS NFT project, a collection based in Solana of 10,000 digital collectibles linked to a virtual concept, where users could socialize and play with others, including the basketball star.

According to the complaint, at the height of the NFT boom, O’Neal was active in the discord of the astrals, even displaying the sadly famous meme “I am not f *** which leaves” to rally the holders, a moment also quoted in legal documents.

But while the market happened in 2022 and 2023, the media threw out died out, and O’Neal would have moved away from the project, leaving many frustrated investors and glued with highly devalued assets.

The complainants claimed to have undergone financial losses following his involvement and his public mentions, which, according to them, was equivalent to selling unregistered titles.

O’Neal has reached a settlement agreement In November, after months of legal back and forth. The court recognized last year that the trial had a viable complaint, suggesting that the NBA Hall of Famer was a direct seller of the tokens.

This is not the first time that Shaq has faced the heat in the world of cryptography. He is also part of an ongoing trial linked to his promotional work for FTX, the exchange of crypto now disappeared.

At the time, lawyers would have struggled To serve him court documents for months, finally catching him in a Miami Heat eliminatory match in May 2023, held at the former Arena FTX.