Justin Bieber, Madonna, The Weekend and other big names might be heading to court over their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
The value of these NFTs, which stands for non-fungible token, have crashed following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a top platform where users could buy and sell crypto. It filed for bankruptcy last month and NFT prices began to tank.
One example is Justin’s own Bored Ape NFT, which he bought for $1.3 million in January 2022. It is now worth $82,000.
Billboard reports that a lawsuit was launched against Yuga Labs, which created Bored Apes and the cryptocurrency ApeCoin, claiming they artificially inflated the price of their products by “discreetly” paying celebrities to hype them.
The lawsuit says these individuals, such as Justin and Madonna, acted as “a promoter for the Company and solicited sales of Yuga securities to the public.”
“Defendants’ promotional campaign was wildly successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and re-sales,” the lawsuit continues, adding that they used celebrities to trick “investors to purchase these losing investments at drastically inflated prices.”
The lawsuit was filed in a California district court.
Representatives for The Weeknd and Justin have not commented on the lawsuit.
This is just the latest legal filing against the cryptocurrency world following FTX’s collapse.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.