Author: Zen, PANews

On November 28th, Beijing time, Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo led the Saudi team Al Nassr to a victory at home against the Iranian team Persepolis. Shortly after the start of the match, C Ronaldo fell in the opponent's penalty area, and the Chinese referee Ma Ning, who officiated the match, blew the whistle and awarded a penalty. However, C Ronaldo got up and walked to Ma Ning, indicating with a hand gesture that it should not have been a penalty. After a VAR review, Ma Ning ultimately overturned the penalty decision.

C Ronaldo's refusal of the penalty earned widespread praise, with numerous domestic and foreign media praising his fair play spirit. However, shortly after this display of sportsmanship, C Ronaldo was hit with a collective lawsuit for promoting the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. The news quickly spread, and major media outlets reported that the controversial "President Ronaldo" was suddenly in the spotlight.

On November 27th local time, Miami collective lawsuit expert Adam Moskowitz filed a collective lawsuit in the Southern District Federal Court of Florida, accusing several well-known organizations and individuals of promoting the bankrupt FTX and Binance, which was recently ordered to pay a $4.3 billion fine. The F1 team Mercedes-AMG and the Major League Baseball (MLB) were accused of assisting FTX's fraudulent activities, while Portuguese football star C Ronaldo was accused of promoting Binance. The court team is seeking billions of dollars in compensation from these accused celebrities and organizations.

The lawsuit alleges that C Ronaldo's promotion of Binance is "deceptive and illegal." The plaintiffs claim that Binance's collaboration with well-known figures like C Ronaldo led them to make costly and unsafe investments. "The current evidence shows that Binance's fraud was able to reach such heights by offering and selling unregistered securities, with the assistance and help of some of the world's richest, most powerful, and most well-known organizations and celebrities, just like the defendant Ronaldo," the lawsuit against C Ronaldo stated. "Binance's collaboration with Ronaldo and other celebrities is clearly aimed at using the positive reputation associated with specific celebrities to persuade consumers that Binance is a safe place to buy and sell cryptocurrencies."

C Ronaldo's collaboration with Binance began in June 2022, when they agreed on an exclusive NFT partnership lasting several years. When announcing this news, Binance stated, "Through global promotional activities, we will bring a Web3 experience to C Ronaldo's fans, leading them to explore the wonderful world of NFTs." So far, C Ronaldo and Binance have jointly released three sets of NFT collections, and they are planning to collaborate again in the future. Recently, he posted on social media that they are "brewing something."

As the athlete with the most social media followers in the sports industry, C Ronaldo has extremely high commercial value and influence, with over 600 million followers on his Instagram account alone. His participation has significantly increased the attention and viewership of the previously unknown Saudi league, even rivaling the top five leagues and becoming one of the most watched leagues. Therefore, it is without a doubt that C Ronaldo has brought huge traffic and income to Binance through their collaboration. The lawsuit claims that after the announcement of this football star's NFT, online searches for the keyword "Binance" increased by 500%.

The NFT mentioned in the lawsuit refers to the first NFT collection released through their partnership, deliberately launched just before the Qatar World Cup. This series includes seven animated statues, divided into four rarity levels: Super Super Rare (SSR), Super Rare (SR), Rare (R), and Normal (N). Each NFT statue depicts iconic moments in C Ronaldo's life, with prices ranging from $77 to $10,000. The higher the rarity, the more exclusive rights are obtained, such as the most rare SSR collection offering the opportunity to virtually meet C Ronaldo and receive a signed Binance shirt, among other fan benefits. There were only 7 SSRs, with a starting price of 10,000 BUSD, and 5 of them were sold within 24 hours at an average price of 22,800 BUSD.

To attract new users, Binance also introduced the CR7 Mystery Box, offering C Ronaldo's NFT for free to new users registered during the event. In the subsequent two collaborations, Binance repeated the same strategy. The second NFT collection series "ForeverCR7: The GOAT" was released in July this year, and Binance's former CEO Zhao Changpeng even promoted that holding the rarest ForeverCR7: The GOAT would have the opportunity to meet and train with C Ronaldo, with Binance covering the airfare and accommodation expenses.

Regarding the collaboration with Binance, C Ronaldo once said, "I have closely collaborated with Binance to develop a series that provides me with a special way to not only connect with my fans but also to involve them in a new and deeper way in the game, while rewarding their support."

However, as the NFT craze subsided, phrases like "leading them to explore the wonderful world of NFTs" and "connecting with my fans" became particularly jarring as NFT prices plummeted or remained unsold. Just like the celebrities and organizations who endorsed FTX faced continued accountability after its collapse, C Ronaldo, who promoted Binance, also faced legal action. The lawsuit also claims that C Ronaldo should disclose how much money Binance paid him for the partnership. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission previously pointed out that federal law requires celebrities to publicly disclose the compensation they receive for promoting securities, including cryptocurrencies.

Nigel Green, CEO of the financial advisory and asset management company DevereGroup, stated that the core issue of this case is not just about a football player, and simply blaming Ronaldo would oversimplify a complex issue. "Instead, we should also focus on global regulatory agencies, which are progressing slowly in providing clear guidance in the face of the constantly changing financial landscape."

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