30. 11. 2023 | Natalie Bezděková

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In yet another surprising court drama, world-renowned football talent Cristiano Ronaldo has found himself in the eye of a storm of lawsuits in the US over his involvement in an ad for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. The plaintiffs are asking for huge damages, in excess of a billion dollars.

Binance and Ronaldo recently jointly launched a collectible digital token collection called “CR7”. These so-called NFTs (non-negotiable tokens) were intended to reward fans for their loyal support. NFTs are virtual assets that are traded without physical existence and are commonly used to denote ownership of digital artifacts on the Internet.

In a short social media video announcing his association with Binance, Ronaldo promised potential investors, “We will revolutionize the world of NFTs and take football to a new level.” The cheapest NFT in the collection was priced at $77 when it launched in November 2022, but a year later its price had dropped dramatically to just $1, as the BBC reports.

The plaintiffs claim that Ronaldo’s intense promotional campaign led to a “500% increase in searches” for the Cayman Islands-registered Binance. They further argue that this expansion caused people to start investing in unregistered securities, including Binance’s cryptocurrency BNB.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers these digital assets to be securities, so celebrities who promote them must comply with U.S. law. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has previously stressed that celebrities must “disclose to the public from whom and for how much they are paid to promote investments in securities.” The plaintiffs allege that Ronaldo should have disclosed information about his fees, but failed to do so.

Photo source: www.pexels.com

Natalie Bezděková

I am a student of Master's degree in Political Science. I am interested in marketing, especially copywriting and social media. I also focus on political and social events at home and abroad and technological innovations. My free time is filled with sports, reading and a passion for travel.