Sued Celebs – Promotion of BAYC NFTs
Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are unique digital assets owned by a single individual. Last year, as interest in NFTs grew, some of these assets were sold for millions of dollars. However, the value of many NFTs has since decreased. For example, Bored Ape NFTs reached a peak value of over $434,000 in April, but one BAYC NFT is worth around $85,000, according to CoinGecko. By July, NFT sales had dropped by more than 90%, reaching their lowest levels in a year.
One of the most famous NFT collections is Bored Ape Yacht Club, often colloquially called Bored Apes, Bored Ape, or BAYC, a non-fungible token collection built on the Ethereum blockchain. The collection features profile pictures of cartoon apes procedurally generated by an algorithm. For the BAYC NFTs to get to their valuation many celebrities had to promote it. As of this week. however, a class action lawsuit has been filed against a group of celebrities, including Jimmy Fallon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, and Justin Bieber, alleging that they promoted Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without disclosing their investments in Yuga Labs, the company behind the digital assets. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, accuses the celebrities of committing fraud by persuading inexperienced investors that the NFTs would increase in value. The complaint states that Yuga Labs’ business model relies on the use of celebrities to promote the company’s securities and increase demand for them without disclosing their compensation.
What do you think about the lawsuit? Is it legitimate?
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I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.