Losses are due to Ronaldo, who advertised on Binance"... 1.3 trillion won in damages
U.S. cryptocurrency investors have filed a $1 billion (approx. KRW 1.3 trillion) lawsuit against Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo (38, Al Nasr) for appearing in advertisements on Binance, the world's largest exchange, and being a leading issuer of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The British public broadcaster BBC reported on Sept. 29 (local time), "Ronaldo is facing a class action lawsuit in the United States. US cryptocurrency investors are seeking $1 billion in damages, claiming that Ronaldo's advertisements on Binance caused them to lose money." Ronaldo is sponsored by Binance. He has posted several photos of himself in a jersey with Binance emblazoned across his chest on Instagram, where he interacts with 610 million people. Ronaldo's Instagram posts with the hashtag #Binance were also posted last month.
Ronaldo's partnership with Binance was most active before and after the World Cup in Qatar, which kicked off last November. Ronaldo was the first to issue an NFT with Binance that featured his signature initials, 'CR7'. 'CR7' stands for 'Cristiano Ronaldo 7'. The number 7 is his shirt number. U.S. crypto investors claimed that "Binance has seen a 500% increase in search volume after featuring Ronaldo as a spokesperson." They claimed that Ronaldo was misleading crypto investors with his huge influence. The cheapest of Ronaldo's NFTs was trading at $77 when it was issued, but within a year it had plummeted to $1, the BBC noted.
Gary Gensler of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) argued that "celebrities should be required to disclose how much they received from whom in promoting investments in securities." The SEC has argued that some cryptocurrencies are securities and should be subject to US federal securities laws. Earlier, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Nov. 21. Zhao operated Binance, which he founded in China in 2017, from a paper headquarters in the tax haven Cayman Islands. Zhao is accused of operating in areas subject to U.S. sanctions, including North Korea, Iran, Syria, and the Russian-occupied Crimea region of Ukraine, and brokering trades. In total, Zhao allegedly brokered 80 cryptocurrency trades worth $4.37 million in North Korea, in violation of the sanctions. Zhao withdrew Binance from the U.S. market and stepped down as CEO. The fine agreed to with the U.S. government is worth $4.3 billion (about 5.5 trillion won).
