Cristiano Ronaldo hit with $1 billion lawsuit for promoting Binance NFT

• Football star Cristiano Ronaldo is being sued for promoting Binance NFTs.
• The plaintiffs are seeking more than $1 billion in damages.
• Ronaldo and Binance said in a court filing that they both made “deceptive statements.”

Cristiano Ronaldo is hit with a class-action lawsuit for promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) listed on Binance.

In court documents filed on Monday, the plaintiffs said both the Portuguese soccer star and the cryptocurrency exchange made “deceptive statements” to promote the “CR7” NFT series, which was launched in November 2022. They are seeking more than $1 billion in damages.

NFTs are digital art forms stored on the blockchain. The asset class has exploded in popularity in 2021 as investors have piled into cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Their value has since plummeted, and roughly 95% are now worthless, according to NFT Scan and CoinMarketCap.

Binance’s CR7 series contains images of Ronaldo in seven poses. The striker, who currently plays for Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr, promises to “change the NFT game and take football to the next level.”

According to BBC News, the cheapest CR7 NFT sold for $77 when it was launched ahead of last year’s FIFA World Cup, but is now worth just $1. Monday’s lawsuit alleges that both Ronaldo and Binance knew their promotions “targeted consumers unfamiliar with cryptocurrency.”

Ronaldo is not the first celebrity to be sued for promoting NFTs or cryptocurrencies. In December 2022, a class action lawsuit accused Justin Bieber, Serena Williams, Paris Hilton and several other high-profile figures of receiving payments to misleadingly promote the Bored Ape Yacht Club digital art collection.

Meanwhile, celebrities including legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David have been criticized for supporting Sam Bankman-Freed (Sam Bankman-Fried) Failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX faces yet another lawsuit.

The Ronaldo NFT lawsuit comes weeks after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, better known as “CZ,” agreed to resign as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The cryptocurrency exchange was fined $4.3 billion for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions rules. The U.S. Justice Department said it failed to block transactions that sent money to terrorist groups including Hamas, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Neither Binance nor Ronaldo’s management company immediately responded to Business Insider’s request for comment outside normal business hours.