Another day, another lawsuit.
In early 2022, the Bored Ape Yacht Club was one of the most popular NFTs. Now, Yuga Labs — the Web3 firm behind the NFTs — has been hit with a class action lawsuit.
The suit was filed through law firm Scott+Scott in the U.S. District Court’s Central District of California and claims that celebrities violated state and federal laws after promoting Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, Decrypt reports. Among the 37 co-defendants are Kevin Hart, Stephen Curry, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Madonna, and more.
In November, Curry was also named as a defendant in an $11 billion class action lawsuit against FTX, as previously shared by AfroTech.
According to Variety, Adonis Real and Adam Titcher claim that the celebrities’ endorsements were not only undisclosed financial relationships but also the cause for the NFTs’ “artificially inflated and distorted prices.”
In addition to the celebrity group, MoonPay is also named for allegedly being a part of the “scheme” of facilitating the endorsements.
The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages of at least $5 million, per Variety.
Following the filed suit, Yuga Labs has claimed that the allegations are false.
“In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic,” a company spokesperson told Decrypt. “We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.”
The outlet notes that for the plaintiff to win the suit, their attorneys will have to prove that the celebrities named had undisclosed financial relationships with Yuga Labs while being endorsers.
The recent suit is Scott+Scott’s follow-up attempt to take action against Yuga Labs.
In July, the firm alleged that the crypto company “violated securities laws in its sale and promotion of Bored Ape NFTs and ApeCoin, the Bored Ape ecosystem’s Ethereum-based token.”
While lawsuits have been piling in against celebrities, there has been a recent win.
As previously reported by AfroTech, Floyd Mayweather, Kim Kardashian and more claimed victory in an EthereumMax lawsuit. Filed in January, the suit claimed they were involved in a scheme with the cryptocurrency company to promote its EMax token.