Former professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal is facing legal challenges related to the ongoing class-action lawsuit concerning the Astral non-fungible token (NFT) project. The lawsuit alleges that the NFTs promoted by O’Neal were unregistered securities. A federal court in Miami recently ruled that there is enough evidence to categorize O’Neal as a “seller” of the Astral NFTs, which means he will have to address the allegations brought forth.
The court’s ruling came after O’Neal sought to dismiss the case. While the judge acknowledged the plaintiffs’ claims that O’Neal’s actions constituted selling the Astrals NFT, he dismissed the notion that O’Neal exercised control over the project itself. The original lawsuit, filed in May 2023, maintains that these NFTs fall under U.S. securities law, asserting that O’Neal encouraged potential investors to engage with the project, promising significant future value.
Specifically, the suit claims that O’Neal advocated for the NFTs by telling investors to “hop on the wave before it’s too late,” and set a target floor price of 30 Solana (SOL). At the time of the collection’s launch in March 2022, this was equivalent to approximately $90. Following O’Neal’s withdrawal from the project, the value of both the Astrals NFTs and the Galaxy token reportedly experienced a significant decline.
As the legal proceedings continue, O’Neal’s legal team contends that he neither qualifies as a “seller” nor a “control person” of the project and argues against the classification of the NFTs and Galaxy token as securities. O’Neal has been given a deadline of September 12 to respond to these claims. Currently, the floor price for the Astrals collection has dropped to around 0.106 SOL, which translates to approximately $15.50 in the market. The Astrals project encompasses a collection of 10,000 NFTs, linked to a metaverse named Astralworld and governed by a decentralized organization featuring a token called Galaxy.
