2 mins readPrices for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs dropped a lot. Some investors are mad. They're suing people involved.
Photo credit: Getty Images / Yuga Labs
How It All Started
Bored Ape Yacht Club is a group of 10,000 special NFTs. They're based on the Ethereum blockchain. These NFTs are cool pictures of apes with different looks and items. Some apes have gold fur or laser eyes. You can buy one for as low as $52,445 now.
But not long ago, the cheapest were more than $400,000. Sotheby's is an auction house.
They sold more than 100 of these NFTs for a lot of money, over $24 million. There's now a lawsuit about this. It says Sotheby's caused fake hype for the Bored Apes.
The Lawsuit
Sotheby's, Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, and others are being sued. People say they promoted Bored Ape NFTs and didn't tell about their money ties.
Adidas and other companies are also in the suit. They're said to be part of inflating prices. MoonPay, a crypto payment firm, is accused too. They paid celebs, so the NFT interest looked real, not bought. Now the investors want their money back.
They want a trial and over $5 million in damages.
Defendants' Responses
Sotheby's fights back. They emailed CNN, saying the lawsuit has no basis. Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber didn't answer CNN's questions. Yuga Labs did, though. They say the lawsuit is without merit. Yuga Labs thinks their work is what matters, not these claims. Adidas and MoonPay didn't reply to CNN either.
Market in Freefall
NFTs make digital art unique and special. Last year, prices for them went up a lot. Some really expensive ones were Jack Dorsey's first tweet, a LeBron James clip, and a "Nyan Cat" GIF.
In a big auction house, a digital artist named "Beeple" sold an NFT for $69 million. But now, the digital asset market isn't doing well. Many cases about cryptocurrencies are going to court.
Final Thoughts
The Bored Ape Yacht Club got famous from celebrities. They brought new people into crypto. But the crypto world can be tricky and full of scams. US regulators are watching it more, like when the crypto exchange FTX collapsed. In March, the SEC charged eight celebs for not saying they got money for promoting crypto.
The lawsuit for Bored Ape NFTs teaches a lesson. Be careful before investing. Always do your homework. Though NFTs can be worth a lot, they're still new and risky.
