Shaquille O’Neal Faces Legal Battle Over NFT Promotion

Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal is facing legal scrutiny in an ongoing class-action lawsuit involving Astral NFTs.

The lawsuit, which has been in progress for over a year, accuses O’Neal of promoting these NFTs as unregistered securities. On August 16, Judge Federico Moreno ruled that O’Neal must respond to claims that he acted as a “seller” for Astrals NFTs. However, the judge dismissed the allegations that O’Neal had control over the project.

Filed in May 2023, the lawsuit argues that Astrals and Galaxy tokens should be regulated as securities under U.S. law. It claims O’Neal encouraged investors to buy in before the project’s value was expected to rise, but that the value collapsed after he exited.

The lawsuit highlights that O’Neal’s promotion contributed to a significant drop in the value of these assets.

O’Neal’s legal team contends that he was neither a “seller” nor a key figure in the project and disputes that the NFTs and tokens are securities. They argue that the case should be dismissed based on these points.

O’Neal has until September 12 to address the claims. Currently, the floor price for Astrals NFTs is approximately $15.50. The project, which operates on the Solana blockchain, features 10,000 NFTs, a metaverse called Astralworld, and a DAO governed by the Galaxy token.