⚖️Floyd Mayweather, Kim Kardashian, , Paul Pierce Sued Over Ethereum Max Promotion
🕋 Investors argue they were misled by the social media influencers.
If you think Ethereum is down, you should see the prices for Ethereum Max (EMAX), the Ethereum-based token that generated publicity last summer through endorsements from celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather, and former NBA star Paul Pierce and marketer Kim Kardashian.
Now, all three celebrities are being sued by an aggrieved investor, who alleges they colluded with EMAX co-founders Steve Gentile and Giovanni Perone to pump the price of the token and then dump them, leaving average investors holding the worthless tokens.
"Defendants touted the prospects of the company and the ability for investors to make significant returns due to the favorable 'tokenomics' of the EMAX Tokens," Huegerich argued in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California. "In truth, defendants marketed the EMAX Tokens to investors so that they could sell their portion of the float for a profit."
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Ethereum Max peaked at a price of $0.000000597636 on May 31, 2021, before falling by more than 80% in 11 days. It then staged a mini-rally in mid-June around the time of Kardashian's post before falling even lower. Since reaching its high, it has lost over 97% of its price; it now sells for an even-more infinitesimal $0.000000017659.
Huegerich purchased EMAX tokens between May 14 and June 17 and is looking to be the lead plaintiff in a class action.
The ERC-20 token first came into the crypto consciousness when Mayweather arrived at June's Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami wearing an Ethereum Max t-shirt—despite organizers warning attendees to leave talk of non-BTC assets at the door. EMAX was sponsoring a boxing match that month between Mayweather and Logan Paul. In 2018, Mayweather was fined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for promoting initial coin offerings without disclosing he had been paid to do so.
The following week, Kardashian—who had previously linked to an ad for an EMAX-sponsored event in May—shared an Instagram story with her more than 200 million followers in which she touted Ethereum Max while using an #AD hashtag to signify it was a commercial. Vitalik Buterin co-founder of Ethereum spoke about it, at ETH CC and hinted that Kim Kardashian should be canceled.
Though the project maintains a presence on Twitter and social media, Ethereum Max has all but disappeared from public view, having managed less than $150,000 in trading volume in the last 24 hours.
🌏Disclaimer: Some members of our team, including editors of this article, have personally invested in a number of cryptocurrency’s, NFTs and DAOs. We also earn commissions on some of the products we recommend.