Forget Cristiano Ronaldo’s crypto court woes, NFTs are here to stay

The $1bn lawsuit against football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo would appear to be another nail in the coffin for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). On the contrary, writes Chris Blackhurst, they are here to stay so we must start to better understand them

Cristiano Ronaldo is being sued for promoting Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange (AP)

So, Cristiano Ronaldo joins the list of celebrities to come a cropper in the world of crypto.

The football superstar is being sued for $1bn (£790m) for promoting Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange. The class action lawsuit, filed in Florida this week, alleges Ronaldo “promoted, assisted in, and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance,” including selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of himself, which led to substantial financial losses for investors.

In November 2022, Ronaldo partnered with Binance to sell unique NFTs depicting “an iconic Ronaldo moment immortalized in the form of a digital statute”, the company boasted in its publicity. Ronaldo follows Madonna, Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow and others on the wrong side of legal actions centred around their endorsement of now-defunct crypto platforms and valueless digital products.