Cristiano Ronaldo hit by lawsuit for promotion of unregistered securities at Binance

Cristiano Ronaldo is slammed by a class-action lawsuit from plaintiffs alleging that they suffered losses from the footballer’s promotion of at least three of his NFT collections with Binance, as reported by Cointelegraph. Binance entered a partnership with the sports player in 2022 for his NFT promotion. 

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Cristiano Ronaldo hit with class-action lawsuit

According to a Cointelegraph report, a class-action lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs that alleges that they suffered losses from Ronaldo’s promotion of the crypto exchange Binance. Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on November 27, to a US district court in Florida and alleged that Ronaldo “promoted, assisted in, and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance.”

Binance recently made headlines for its $4.3 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice. The football star entered a multiyear partnership with the exchange for promotion and sale of his NFT collections, tied to the exchange platform. The complainants claim that Ronaldo used his influence – over 850 million Instagram followers – to promote the sale of his NFT collections. 

Market participants who purchased NFTs from Ronaldo’s collection tied to Binance were likely to use Binance for investing in cryptocurrencies, or “unregistered securities” according to the lawsuit. The Al Nassr star completed the successful sale of his NFT collections in association with Binance, the footballer is now slammed with a $1 billion lawsuit. 

The SEC had issued a guidance for celebrities to disclose their payments from the promotion of cryptocurrencies, plaintiffs allege that Ronaldo failed to do so. Federal Securities Laws require any celebrity or other individual who promotes a crypto asset security to disclose the nature, source, and amount of compensation they received in exchange for the promotion.