‘Bored Apes’ investors sue Sotheby’s, Paris Hilton and others as NFT prices collapse
CNN —
A group of investors is suing Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. and others over a 2021 auction and promotion of Bored Ape Yacht Club
non-fungible tokens (NFTs) following a collapse in prices for the celebrity-endorsed collectibles.
The four named plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit allege that the auction house “misleadingly promoted” the NFTs and colluded with creator Yuga Labs to artificially inflate their prices.
Sotheby’s is among 30 defendants named in the lawsuit, with celebrities like Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton also accused of promoting the NFT collection without disclosing their financial links to it.
According to cryptocurrency market tracker
CoinGecko, the colorful digital illustrations of apes can now be bought for as little as $52,445. As recently as May 2022, the cheapest would have cost collectors over $400,000.
In September 2021, Sotheby’s sold
over 100 of the NFTs to a single buyer in an online auction for more than $24 million, beating the pre-sale estimate of $12 million to $18 million.
The amended lawsuit, which was originally filed in December without naming Sotheby’s as a defendant, claims the sale was “deceptive” and that the auction house had been hired by blockchain company Yuga Labs to “generate investors’ interest and hype around the Bored Ape brand.”
