Nike Faces $5 Million Lawsuit Over RTFKT NFT Shutdown

Nike, which beforehand acquired the NFT platform RTFKT, is now dealing with a $5 million lawsuit. Consumers of the digital belongings accuse Nike of committing a rug pull, a kind of crypto fraud the place venture creators abandon a enterprise after driving up the asset worth, leaving buyers with nugatory tokens.

Final yr, Nike introduced its plan to close down RTFKT’s operations. Following this transfer, a gaggle led by Jagdeep Cheema filed a lawsuit towards the corporate. The plaintiffs declare that they’d not have bought the NFTs if they’d recognized they had been unregistered securities.

Within the lawsuit filed within the Japanese District of New York, Nike is accused of violating shopper safety legal guidelines in New York, California, Florida, and Oregon. The group seeks over $5 million in damages, citing vital losses after Nike promoted sneaker-themed NFTs to draw buyers, solely to close down the platform shortly afterward.

Nike initially entered the NFT market by buying RTFKT in 2021. Nonetheless, after the enterprise failed to fulfill expectations, Nike determined to exit the area. In December, Nike introduced through its RTFKT X account that it deliberate to totally terminate RTFKT’s actions by the tip of January. At the moment, the platform seems to be operated by a single particular person, Samuel Cardillo, who not too long ago commented on the sudden disappearance and reappearance of art work associated to the CloneX NFT venture.

Based on studies, Nike’s NFT assortment was initially offered for a mean of three.5 Ether (roughly $8,000 on the time) when first listed on April 18, 2022. Nonetheless, by April 21, 2025, OpenSea knowledge reveals that the identical NFTs are buying and selling for about 0.009 Ether, roughly $16 — a staggering decline in worth.

This case unfolds amid a broader market development. The NFT market witnessed a pointy downturn within the first quarter of 2025. World NFT gross sales dropped by 63%, falling from $4.1 billion in Q1 2024 to $1.5 billion within the January-March interval of 2025.

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