- Shaquille O’Neal settled an $11M lawsuit over promoting the failed Astrals NFT project, with $2.9M going to attorney fees and the rest compensating eligible buyers.
- The Astrals NFT collection, once hyped with promises of metaverse experiences, has gone inactive, reflecting the broader collapse of many 2021–2022 era NFT projects.
Shaquille O’Neal is officially off the legal hook, at least when it comes to the NFT project he backed during the last bull market.
According to Bloomberg, a Florida federal judge approved a US$11M (AU$17.8M) settlement between the former NBA star and buyers of the now-defunct Astrals NFT collection, closing out a class-action lawsuit that accused O’Neal of promoting unregistered securities.
The final approval, signed by Judge Federico Moreno on April 1 and made public a week later, establishes the US$11M as the fund for eligible claimants —namely, anyone who bought Astrals NFTs between May 2022 and Jan. 15, 2024, or picked up the project’s native GLXY token during the same timeframe.
Very Fair And Reasonable Fees
Attorneys will take home $2.9M (AU$4.7M) of that as part of the sweet deal.
“The fee sought by lead class counsel has been reviewed and approved as fair and reasonable by plaintiffs,” the court order states.
O’Neal was sued in May 2023 by a group led by plaintiff Daniel Harper, who argued they’d lost money thanks to the basketball icon’s role in launching and promoting the Astrals project. The Solana-based collection featured 10,000 3D avatars and promised a metaverse-style experience—complete with social interaction, gameplay, and, of course, celebrity involvement.
But that dream didn’t last. By August, Judge Moreno acknowledged the group had sufficiently alleged that O’Neal acted as a “seller” of the NFTs, a classification that added legal weight to the securities claim. O’Neal ultimately agreed to settle in November.
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So, what happened to Astral? Where are they now?
Nowhere, basically. According to OpenSea, Astrals NFTs haven’t seen any marketplace activity in roughly two years. It’s a fitting fate for a project that, like many launched during the NFT frenzy of 2021–2022, over promised and just vanished as quickly as it arrived. I’m surprised that OpenSea is still operating to this day.
Ah, those were some good times for degenerates and speculators. But some things never change.
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