Even being sued by crypto investors, does NBA legend O'Neill still play crypto?

From refusing to accept cryptocurrency, to happily participating, to being "notorious" for it. O'Neill, who quit the encryption circle, may not come back this time.

Written by: Zen, PANews

2021 is a prosperous year for the cryptocurrency industry. Against the background of the entry of traditional investment institutions, the popularity of NFT and the Metaverse, many people in the traditional industry, represented by NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, have a strong understanding of the cryptocurrency industry. attitude changed.

In July of that year, in an interview with the American sports media Front Office Sports, O'Neill shared his views on cryptocurrencies. He said that he only invests in what he firmly believes in and avoids venture capital investments that "look too good to be true". “I keep hearing people say, hey, come send a tweet, give you $900,000 worth of cryptocurrency.” He can’t understand why these companies want him to advertise, but several of his friends have I have fallen into such a small scam, so I will be vigilant about such venture capital.

However, Olney, who has never understood cryptocurrency, has been involved in disputes over some encrypted projects after participating in and promoting encrypted venture capital. In the past two months, he has received lawsuits from FTX and Astral NFT.

From rejection to understanding, to deep participation in crypto

O'Neal has a net worth of approximately $400 million in 2021. All his investments are in traditional industries such as advertising company Majority, fitness platform Beachbody, and bottled alkaline water brand Alkaline Water. He is also a minority shareholder in the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Aside from the fact that NBA TopShot launched his card pack earlier that year, from what O'Neal has said, it seems he is unwilling and will not be associated with the cryptocurrency industry. However, for some unknown reason, within three months, O'Neill's concept changed 180 degrees.

At the end of September 2021, O'Neal changed his Twitter avatar to the Creature World NFT series. In the middle of the next month, he cooperated with the NFT project EthernityChain to release his first personal NFT series: "Shaquille O'Neal: The Eras of Dominance Collection". The series has five types of NFTs, showing O'Neal's highlights during the three teams of the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, with prices ranging from $50 to $20,000.

In an interview, when O'Neill mentioned encryption again, he said that NFT is a good way to let people understand encryption technology, and said that "people need to actually operate cryptocurrency to understand it." In December 2021, O'Neal released the Shaq Gives Back series of NFTs, and said that all proceeds from this sale will be donated to the Shaquille O'Neal Foundation. It is said that "Father and Son Soldier", O'Neal's son Shareef O'Neal (Shareef O'Neal), who is still in his junior year, followed his father's footsteps and signed a long-term agreement with NFT Genius, a Flow-based NFT market, before the release of "Shaq Gives Back" , plans to cooperate to launch the NFT series.

"Crypto Propaganda Ambassador" and the crash of FTX

After O'Neill successively released his personal NFT series, he still became a high-level participant in the encryption industry and caught up with various encryption trends. He first changed the name of his Twitter account to "SHAQ.ETH" on December 23, 2021, and again to "SHAQ.SOL" at the end of February 2022. .sol is the domain name of the public chain Solana. This public chain project is highly regarded by SBF, the founder of FTX. Some people even jokingly call Solana SBF's "son". Therefore, O'Neill's second name change should be based on his partnership with FTX.

The first cooperation between the two parties was on February 11. FTX announced on the same day that from 2022, it will sponsor O'Neill's music carnival "Shaq's Fun House" during the Super Bowl for a long time. The music carnival will be held in Los Angeles with over 5,000 spectators, featuring cabaret performances and an FTX Ferris Wheel facility with an exhibition of FTX crypto products. FTX also offered carnival prizes at the festival, offering discounts to guests who made crypto payments via FTX Pay.

In June 2022, O'Neal's cooperation with FTX was further upgraded, and this time he appeared directly in FTX's advertisements. In the video, O'Neill said he is working with FTX to help make crypto accessible to everyone. He tells viewers that he checks his FTX account every day, adding in the end credits: "I'm all in. How about you?"

In November 2022, a thunderstorm occurred on FTX, and the collapse of the leading exchange caused heavy losses to millions of retail investors. And a group of sports and entertainment stars such as Shaquille O'Neill, Brady, and Curry who spoke for him were settled by Qiuhou, and investors filed a class action lawsuit. In this regard, O’Neill made a defense. He said in the US media CNBC program: “I didn’t really participate in FTX, just a paid spokesperson for advertising. I don’t understand cryptocurrency, so I may stay away from cryptocurrency until I fully understand it. what.” He added that he had rejected other proposals to support cryptocurrencies.

O'Neill isn't buying himself being sued over FTX. In March of this year, according to Forbes reports. Plaintiffs' attorneys, David Boies and Adam Moskowitz, said that after an enormous effort, all of the defendants received their complaints, but only O'Neill chose to evade, delay these proceedings or otherwise attempt to avoid being held accountable for the allegations. The 7-foot-1 O'Neill hid in the home for a month while arraigners stood outside his home with court documents, according to the lawyer. In April, O'Neill was finally formally served with an FTX class action suit at his home and will be required to appear in federal court to explain to the public what it is a false advertising campaign for FTX.

One wave is not flat, and another wave rises again. In May of this year, a class action lawsuit filed in Florida federal court accused O'Neill of violating securities laws by promoting unregistered Astral tokens. And the floor price of NFT "dropped sharply". What's interesting is that when O'Neal received the lawsuit, it was during the match between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, and the arena Kaseya Center for the Eastern Conference finals was called the FTX Arena not long ago.

From refusing to accept cryptocurrency, to happily participating, to being "notorious" for it. O'Neill, who quit the encryption circle, may not come back this time.