A class action lawsuit against Yuga Labs has ensnared the Sotheby’s auction house. Yuga Labs is the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection as well the ApeCoin crypto and Otherdeed NFTs that represent metaverse land. Last week Sotheby’s was added to the lawsuit originally filed in December 2022, alleging all of the Yuga’s sales involved securities and celebrities promoted unregistered securities. In addition to Sotheby’s, the lawsuit’s targets include adidas, MoonPay, Hollywood agent Guy Oseary, Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton and several other celebrities.
At the time of first filing of the lawsuit, Yuga Labs described the claims as “opportunistic and parasitic”.
That viewpoint is not without merit. The revised lawsuit alleges that the first “scheme” was a “deceptive Sotheby’s auction” with the aim of creating an “air of legitimacy”. The implication is that Sotheby’s found this obscure NFT collection and promoted the hell out of it, which is not entirely true. In reality it works the other way around.
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