Serena Williams named in class action suit alleging misleading promotion of NFTs

Serena Williams has been named in a class-action lawsuit filed against the creators of the NFT company Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

The lawsuit alleged that a host of celebrities had misled investors and violated both state and federal laws by promoting non-fungible BAYC tokens at artificially inflated prices without disclosing their financial stakes or other relevant interests.

Justin Bieber, Madonna, Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg, and Jimmy Fallon are some of the other celebrities listed in the lawsuit.

"Defendants' promotional campaign was wildly successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and re-sales. The manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions regarding the launch of an entire BAYC ecosystem (the so-called Otherside metaverse) were able to artificially increase the interest in and price of the BAYC NFTs during the Relevant Period, causing investors to purchase these losing investments at drastically inflated prices. Promoting the BAYC NFTs on their social media platforms and through their reported conduct, [the celebrities] provided assistance that was a substantial factor in causing the NAYC NFTs price to both surge and do so long enough to allow all Defendants to sell their BAYC NFTs for huge profits at the expense of their followers and investors," the lawsuit read.

Williams, an avid NFT enthusiast, posted a Bored Ape NFT from the BAYC collection on Twitter in January.

"Inspire, ignite, excel" - Serena Williams excited as her venture firm leads $12M funding round of tech-enabled healthcare platform

Serena Williams pictured during the 2018 Wimbledon Championships

Serena Williams' venture capital company, Serena Ventures, recently led a $12 million Series A fundraising round of Juno Medical, a tech-enabled healthcare platform with a focus on making healthcare services accessible to the masses at fair prices. The 23-time Grand Slam champion and NEXT VENTURES' Managing Partner Julian Eison jointly led the funding round.

Williams reacted to her company's latest investment on her Instagram stories, writing:

"Inspire, ignite, excel."

Serena Williams' Instagram story

The services offered by US-based Juno Medical are designed to offer families adult primary care, women's health care, pediatrics, and same-day care all under one roof as a one-stop solution. The new investment from Serena Ventures and NEXT VENTURES will aid the business' expansion into other locations in the United States.

The former World No. 1 founded Serena Ventures in 2014, with a focus on investing in businesses owned by women and people of color. It has so far invested in more than 60 start-ups and announced in March 2022 that it had raised $111 million.