Welcome to our article on the Bored Ape Yacht Club lawsuit. In this article, we will try our best to inform you about the current situation in the lawsuit, the names included in it, and the respondents’ and plaintiffs’ responses regarding the case.
A class action lawsuit alleges that Yuga Labs stakeholders conspired with celebrities to deceive potential investors. Yuga Labs is the parent business of the NFT series Bored Ape Yacht Club and its associated digital items.
The 37 defendants in the complaint, which was filed on December 8 in federal district court in Los Angeles, are listed as Kevin Hart, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Serena Williams, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Post Malone, and NBA player Steph Curry, as well as Yuga partners, including veteran music manager Guy Oseary. Amy Wu, who recently left the failing cryptocurrency exchange FTX and served as an adviser and board member of the ApeDAO, is also mentioned in the names of the Bored Ape Yacht Club lawsuit.
For the plaintiffs and the alleged class of “all individuals similarly situated,” the complaint demands monetary damages of at least $5 million.
A representative at Yuga Labs claimed:
“In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic. We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.”
Current status in Bored Ape Yacht Club lawsuit
Plaintiffs Adonis Real and Adam Titcher claimed in their complaint submitted to the federal Central District Court of California that they bought NFTs produced by Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club, among other NFT collections, after seeing the endorsement of well-known celebrities who, according to the plaintiffs, were part of a “vast scheme” to inflate the value of the NFTs.
Furthermore, according to the complaint, Yuga Labs officials colluded with the crypto-trading app Moonpay and Hollywood talent agent Guy Oseary, who represents Bored Apes, to entice famous people to promote BAYC NFTs while concealing the fact that they were being paid to do so. The complaint claims that Oseary and many of his clients were early investors in MoonPay, which processed payments to celebrities in cryptocurrency and other digital assets for what appeared to be “organic” marketing.
The defendants’ marketing strategy was extremely effective, resulting in purchases and resales worth billions of dollars. According to the complaint, “fabricated celebrity endorsements and deceptive advertisements were able to artificially enhance interest in and price of the BAYC NFTs, prompting investors to purchase these losing investments at substantially inflated rates.
Celebrities on Bored Ape Yacht Club lawsuit
The celebrities mentioned in the lawsuit include Oseary’s client Madonna, who talked about the Bored Apes in a Rolling Stone article, Jimmy Fallon, who promoted the Apes and MoonPay on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, along with Justin Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Kevin Hart, Wardell Stephen Curry II, and rapper Khalid.
Many of these celebrities have been mentioned in the FTX lawsuit before.
What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?
The non-fungible token collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, also known as Bored Apes, Bored Ape, or BAYC, was created on the Ethereum network.
Cartoon apes’ profile images are created procedurally by an algorithm and are included in the collection. Yuga Labs is the parent organization of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Owners of Bored Apes are regarded as members of the BAYC and have access to exclusive benefits like members-only live events, private internet places, and specialized merchandise. One of the main draws of bored apes is their use as avatars; many owners switch their display photos on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and even Twitter to represent their apes. They are more inspired by comic books and Pokémon cards rather than the early internet lo-fi aesthetics of other NFT initiatives like CryptoPunks.
And that’s all we know about the subject for now. Keep reading us to stay up to date with the Bored Ape Yacht Club lawsuit. Unfortunately, this is not the only scandalous case this year. If you want to learn more about the background of the FTX case, which has hit the crypto market like a bomb in the past weeks, we recommend you review our article titled How did FTX collapse: What happened to FTX crypto?
