NFTs
Cristiano Ronaldo Binance NFTs for Sale Despite $1 Billion Lawsuit
When it comes to one of the greatest strikers in football history, crypto still has legs.
Despite ongoing litigation faced by both Cristiano Ronaldo It is Binancethe Portuguese star revealed his fourth NFT collection with the global cryptocurrency exchange on Wednesday.
Thousands of digital collectibles featuring work produced by seven different artists will go on sale exclusively on the Binance NFT marketplace over the next two weeks for $35 each. Certain holders will later receive benefits like t-shirts and game tickets, while some rarer NFTs will be sold at auction in June. Purchasers of these digital items will have the opportunity to meet Ronaldo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he plays for Al-Nassr FC. Owners of all six regular NFTs (each representing a different stop during Ronaldo’s career) will also have the chance to compete in a quiz to win the seventh NFT, representing Portugal, and join in on the journey.
The announcement comes weeks after Florida judge Roy Altman denied Ronaldo’s request for a $1 billion payout. lawsuit against the star for promoting the “sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance”.
Binance launched the first set of Ronaldo NFTs in November 2022, and the football star has posted about the company multiple times to his more than 630 million Instagram followers.
As blockchain technology made a bid for public adoption, several companies turned to sport – and its biggest stars, including Ronaldo, Tom Brady and Steph Curry – to boost the industry’s credibility.
“For me, it’s all about trust,” Ronaldo he said in a 2023 online Q&A session while explaining his favorite thing about Binance.
Binance has also signed agreements with football organizations including FC Porto and SS Lazio, as well as F1 team Alpine. It claims to have onboarded more than a million new users through sports partnerships.
“Once these users access Binance, they quickly engage with our brand,” said Sarah Dale, head of global partnerships and entertainment at Binance. “We’re seeing them come and learn from us and engage with us and we’re seeing that increase after the campaign period.”
Criticism of these connections increased in 2021, especially after the bankruptcy of Binance rival FTX. Brady, Curry, Shohei Ohtani and Shaquille O’Neal were all named in a lawsuit against celebrity endorsers of FTX, while MLB and Jimmy Butler were also the subject of legal action.
As part of a settlement with the US government last November, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines, while former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering violations after prosecutors said members of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, among other bad actors, used the service. In April, Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison.
“Words cannot explain how deeply I regret my choices that resulted in my appearance in Court,” he said in a letter to the judge before sentencing, while also noting that Binance has implemented stronger controls in 2022. I’m sure this will never happen again.”
Binance is now moving forward under new leadership.
“Positioning ourselves for the next 50 years means understanding today’s challenges in cryptography and working to develop industry-leading standards to address them,” the company states. he wrote when announcing its resolution to North American investigators. “We have built a community and ecosystem that empowers individuals to harness the power of blockchain technology to unlock opportunities for their families, communities and economies around the world, and we are committed to ensuring the transformative power of these technologies is experienced by more people. people all over the world.”
Crypto supporters have seen reason for optimism in recent months. Bitcoin prices surpassed $70,000 for the first time in March, while Binance Coin prices are up more than 90% year over year. Ronaldo’s third collaboration with Binance debuted in October, offering 50,000 free collectibles and a select number of tangible rewards.
“With each release, we’ve really seen more interest from fans,” said Dale, “and we continue to strive to provide more creativity, more access to it, greater rewards, to surpass ourselves each time.”
Binance is still fighting a separate 13-count Security and Exchange Commission lawsuit, which was outlined by Binance US COO Christopher Blodgett in a deposition as a “near-death blow” to the US operation.
Partly due to legal restrictions, Ronaldo’s newest NFT set, “Forever Worldwide: The Road to Saudi Arabia,” is not available in the US, where Binance’s main international service is currently located. Prohibited.