Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is among the FTX endorsers who have settled a class action lawsuit for their roles in promoting the cryptocurrency exchange before it collapsed in November 2022.
Lawrence signed a deal with FTX in April 2021, just days before being selected No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft, to promote the company’s investment app Blockfolio. The exchange said it was the first deal in which a “signing bonus has been paid entirely in cryptocurrency.” An FTX affiliate bankruptcy filing said Lawrence received a $500,000 payment in September 2022, according to Bloomberg.
“Trevor Lawrence is the future of professional football and cryptocurrency is the future of money, so the partnership was a no-brainer,” disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried said in Blockfolio’s 2021 partnership announcement with Lawrence.
Bankman-Fried now faces a fraud trial in Manhattan next month after investigators found he used more than $8 billion in FTX customer deposits for his Alameda Research hedge fund. Other athletes sued for endorsing FTX include Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Naomi Osaka, and Shohei Ohtani.
Lawrence’s settlement terms with duped FTX investors were not disclosed. YouTube influencers Kevin Paffrath and Tom Nash, who were also FTX endorsers, agreed to a settlement in a Friday court filing.
The Jaguars quarterback is in the third year of his four-year rookie contract worth $36.7 million. FTX’s sports sponsorships that have been removed since its collapse include its MLB umpire jersey patch deal, Miami Heat arena naming rights, Cal Berkeley football stadium naming rights, and deals with Mercedes F1 and Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
