Stephen Curry, Serena Williams, and Adidas are all being sued as members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Other celebrities including Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg, and Madonna are accused of pumping up the value of Yuga Labs’ flagship NFT collection and its associated crypto token ApeCoin.
- The suit claims that defendants made “false and misleading statements concerning Yuga’s growth prospects, financial ownership, and financial benefits” and used “celebrities to lure in unsuspecting investors.”
- Many celebrities promoted the NFT collection and had Bored Ape avatars of themselves.
- Plaintiffs Adam Titcher and Adonis Real said they purchased BAYC assets during or after April 2021 and took heavy financial losses from them.
ApeCoin launched in March of this year but has fallen by 46.8% of its initial value and 84.4% of its peak in April.
Bored Ape Yacht Club surged to $346.1 million in January 2022 but has fallen off with sales volume under $32 million in September and October and $63.8 million last month.
NFT Drop
NBA Top Shot, a Dapper Labs product which helped ignite the craze through a licensing agreement with the NBA, saw sales volume top $200 million in February and March of 2021, but volume just fell to $2.1 million in November.
The Topps MLB NFT collection had $8.5 million in sales volume in April 2021 but hasn’t topped $1 million since June 2021. The NFL’s “NFL All Day” NFTs peaked in September at $14.3 million.
