Shaquille O'Neal Faces Class Action Lawsuit over Solana-based Astrals NFT Project

A Florida court only partially dismissed a class action lawsuit against Shaquille O'Neal for his involvement in promoting the Solana-based Astrals NFT project.

A Florida court has partially dismissed a class action lawsuit against former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal over his role in promoting the Solana-based Astrals NFT project.

According to court documents filed on March 23, District Judge Federico Moreno dismissed claims that O’Neal was a “control person” in the Astrals Entities, which sold the Astrals and Galaxy tokens. However, the judge did not dismiss claims that allege O’Neal was a “pivotal promoter” of the project.

“The alleged unregistered securities sold to Plaintiffs are the Astrals and Galaxy tokens created for the Astrals project,” the court filing reads. “One of the main promotors of The Astrals Entities was former National Basketball Association player Shaquille O’Neal.”

The court filing adds that O’Neal “openly promoted the Astrals project on his social media accounts, touted the Astrals team, and stated that he would not be leaving the project even after learning that the Astrals NFTs had crashed to 30 SOL.”

Moreno’s order now gives lawyers who brought the class action lawsuit an opportunity to present arguments on how the tokens sold by Astrals were unregistered securities, a claim that could bolster their case against O’Neal.

“Plaintiffs claim that O’Neal knew or should have known of potential concerns about regulatory issues concerning the sale of unregistered crypto securities, but nevertheless extensively promoted the Astrals Project to his large following on a multitude of social media platforms,” the court filing reads.

Astrals was a metaverse-based NFT project that enabled users to purchase 3D NFTs that could be utilized as avatars on social media, on-chain applications, and within Astrals’ metaverse, the Astralverse. The project also featured a DAO, which the project claimed would raise funds to invest in promising projects. In addition to the NFTs, Astrals also sold Galaxy (GLXY) tokens, which acted as the governance token used for decision-making in the DAO.

O’Neal, who is known for his enthusiastic social media presence and love of NFTs, heavily promoted the Astrals project to his millions of followers on platforms like X. He frequently posted GIFs, including one from The Wolf of Wall Street that showed Leonardo DiCaprio saying “I’m not f*cking leaving,” on Discord amid 2022’s FTX collapse, and sent videos in which he talked about the Astrals team continuing the project’s development until the NFT prices reached 30 SOL.

According to the court documents, O’Neal joined Astrals in early 2022 and promoted the project throughout the year. The basketball star reportedly left the project shortly after Astrals NFTs crashed to 30 SOL from an initial mint price of 3 SOL.

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