• Judge Federico Moreno must now decide whether or not to approve the settlement.

  • If approved, it would put an end to claims that he advocated for securities that were not registered.

In a settlement with the class action lawsuit, Shaquille O’Neal has consented to pay $11 million. The complaint was filed by holders of the Astrals NFT collection.

Judge Federico Moreno must now decide whether or not to approve the settlement. Which was presented as an uncontested proposal on Monday in a district court in Florida. If approved, it would put an end to claims that he advocated for securities that were not registered.

Designed by artist Damien Guimoneau, the Astrals NFT project included 10,000 digital items. A virtual platform for socializing and interacting, these NFTs gave users the chance to communicate with Shaquille O’Neal, a basketball great. Along with the collection, a new cryptocurrency called Galaxy was established.

Frustrated Investors Hold Shaq Responsible

According to court records, O’Neal used his celebrity status to drum up investment for the Astrals NFTs and Galaxy token. Aside from other strategies, he also performed as “DJ Diesel” at events with Astrals images in order to promote the project.

To encourage investors to keep their tokens, the Hall of Fame athlete famously shared the Wolf of Wall Street meme—on the Astrals Discord channel. Despite this, the larger NFT and cryptocurrency markets fell sharply, driven by the FTX crash and other similar incidents.

O’Neal was sued by investors in a district court in Florida for these conduct. But the sportsman wanted the accusations dropped.

The first lawsuit said that in March of 2022, the 52-year-old and his son debuted the Astrals NFT collection. Claiming that O’Neal’s advocacy for these NFTs and the Galaxy token had a significant role in their investment decision, the investors sued.

May 2023 saw the start of legal proceedings in which plaintiffs claimed O’Neal pushed NFTs while knowing they were unregistered securities in order to further his crypto ventures. 

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