Shaquille O’Neal, the US basketball legend, recently scored a partial victory in a Miami court regarding his involvement in the Astrals non-fungible token (NFT) project, dismissing some of the claims in the class action lawsuit filed against him in May 2023.
Astrals is an NFT project on the Solana blockchain featuring 10,000 3D avatars designed to drive investment in a virtual environment known as Astralverse. This world is managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that uses its own cryptocurrency, Galaxy.
Judge Federico Moreno ruled that while O’Neal did act as a “seller” in the project, he was not a “control person.” The court also did not dismiss the claim that the NFTs and Galaxy tokens could be considered securities.
Court records show that O’Neal actively promoted the Astrals project online, even promising in one video that the team would work until the NFTs reached 30 SOL in value. However, the plaintiffs argue that O’Neal later abandoned the project, causing the NFTs to lose value.
The plaintiffs further stated that O’Neal knew or should have known of potential concerns about regulatory issues concerning the sale of unregistered crypto securities, but nevertheless extensively promoted the Astrals Project to his large following on a multitude of social media platforms.
The court has given O’Neal and the Astrals team until September 12 to respond to the remaining allegations. This ruling leaves several legal questions unresolved, with a final decision still pending on the remaining claims against O’Neal.
In other news, YouTuber and crypto journalist Stephen Findeisen, better known as Coffeezilla, has recently addressed a defamation lawsuit filed against him by social media influencer Logan Paul. The lawsuit accuses Coffeezilla of spreading false statements about Paul’s failed NFT project CryptoZoo.
