A legal issue has arisen for former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal due to his promotion of the Solana-based cryptocurrency project known as Astrals.
Daniel Harper, the plaintiff in the class action lawsuit filed in a court in Florida, alleges that Shaquille promoted the Astrals token on some of his social media accounts by using posts and videos.
Lawsuit Filed Against Shaquille O’Neal over Astrals Project
According to the lawsuit, Astrals is a collection of 3D-modeled NFTs established by Shaq and his son, Mylers O’Neal, and his music manager, Brian Bayati, worked as the CEO of the project. Shaq’s son served as “Investor Relations”
Astrals is developing a gaming and metaverse experience ecosystem, which users can access through the Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden. The project encouraged users to interact with the native cryptocurrency, and it introduced the Shaq Signature Pass, which includes a collection of 50 NFTs that can only be claimed with the native token.
The lawsuit filed by Harper claims that Astrals tokens are unregistered securities, and they should undergo the Howey test. This test works to determine whether a cryptocurrency (or any other asset) qualifies as a security or investment contract.
If the Astrals token passes the Howey test, it will be categorized as a security and must be reported with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Therefore, the SEC will probably initiate legal proceedings against Astrals and its executives for a settlement.
Not the First Case for Shaq
Shaquille has faced problems in other cryptocurrency-related lawsuits since entering the industry. Earlier this month, he was involved with a court case that dealt with the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
The NBA celebrity stated that the summons he received regarding his engagement with FTX was not sufficient because it was thrown at his moving vehicle and did not serve him at home.
