Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, & Post Malone All Hit With Same NFT Lawsuit
What may be one of the biggest lawsuits Hollywood has ever seen was just launched against the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and a variety of celebrities.
The class action case accuses the creators, Yuga Labs, of using celebrities to increase the value of the NFTs, but it ultimately resulted in huge losses for the buyers.
According to Rolling Stone, celebrities named in the lawsuit include Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Post Malone, Madonna, Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg, Stephen Curry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexis Ohanian, Diplo, Serena Williams, Paris Hilton, DJ Khaled, Jimmy Fallon, and Future.
The celebrities are being accused of acting as promoters for Yuga Labs in order to solicit sales for the company. Yuga Labs allegedly formed a relationship with entertainment manage Guy Osreary, who helped coordinate the celebrity endorsements. He’s also being named in the lawsuit.
“Defendants’ promotional campaign was wildly successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and re-sales,” court documents allege.
“The manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions regarding the launch of an entire BAYC ecosystem (the so-called Otherside metaverse) were able to artificially increase the interest in and price of the BAYC NFTs during the Relevant Period, causing investors to purchase these losing investments at drastically inflated prices,” it continues.
There are 37 defendants named in the lawsuit. In addition to celebrity promoters, the case is also going after Oseary, Yuga Labs and MoonPay executives.
“MoonPay purports to be a white-glove service designed to help the super-rich and celebrities buy NFTs ‘without all the hassle ofsetting up a wallet, buying crypto, using that crypto to purchase an NFT and thentaking custody of it,’” the lawsuit continues.
“In truth, the Executive Defendants and Oseary used their connections to MoonPay and its service as a covert way to compensate the PromoterDefendants for their promotions of the BAYC NFTs without disclosing it to unsuspecting investors,” it adds.
Two buyers – Adam Titcher and Adonis Real – are behind the lawsuit. Adam purchased a pair of Yuga Lab NFTs that have since lost value, whereas Adonis claims he bought ApeCoin cryptocurrency after being pressure by Yuga Labs that it was necessary to buy things in the BAYC metaverse.
Interestingly, some of the famous folk named in the lawsuit have also bought the NFT.
Rolling Stone notes that Justin purchased a BAYC NFT for $1.3 million in January 2022. But by November, it significantly dipped in value to $69,000.
Sources: Rolling Stone, Complex,
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