Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the world’s most famous football players, has teamed up with Binance to launch multiple NFT collections, aiming to reinvigorate the NFT market. Binance recently released the Forever Worldwide: the road to Saudi Arabia NFT collection in collaboration with Ronaldo. This was the fourth collection in their collaboration and was available exclusively on the Binance NFT Marketplace. The collection included seven unique NFTs, each representing a key location in Ronaldo’s career: Madeira, Lisbon, Manchester, Madrid, Turin, Saudi Arabia and Portugal.
Collectors could earn rewards based on the number of unique NFTs they owned. The first release of the ‘Forever Worldwide: The Road to Saudi Arabia’ NFT collection will be available exclusively on the Binance NFT Marketplace on May 29, 2024.
The collection was released in multiple phases throughout the football season, ending with an auction on June 14, featuring ultra-rare NFTs. Binance’s CR7 program also introduced a “Collect to Earn” system, which rewards collectors for collecting more NFTs.
In partnership with Binance, Ronaldo had launched an NFT collection, marking a multi-year deal that could cement his position as a major figure in global cryptocurrency adoption. The partnership was expected to attract many newcomers to the crypto space, especially when market conditions improve.
However, Ronaldo’s partnership with Binance faced controversy. He faced a class action lawsuit over his promotion of cryptocurrency exchange Binance in November 2023. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Florida, alleged that Ronaldo’s endorsement of Binance in 2022 led to users investing in unregistered securities investments, resulting in significant financial losses. The plaintiffs argued that given Ronaldo’s investment experience and resources, Ronaldo should have been aware of the potential risks associated with Binance’s practices.
The lawsuit claims that Ronaldo’s endorsement led to a dramatic increase in interest, with searches for the crypto exchange increasing by as much as 500% following the release of his tokens. However, Ronaldo suffered a setback when a US judge refused to dismiss the class action lawsuit against him. On May 4, Judge Roy Altman denied Ronaldo’s request to dismiss the case and granted the plaintiffs’ request to pause proceedings pending an arbitration decision. The judge said: “We dismiss, without prejudice, the defendant’s 29 motion to dismiss.”
Binance leveraged Ronaldo’s global fame to expand its influence, build on existing football partnerships and potentially pave the way for future collaborations with major brands, which have already ventured into the Web3 space.