Cristiano Ronaldo 'sued' over promotion of crypto exchange Binance

Cristiano Ronaldo has been hit with a lawsuit over claims surrounding his involvement with a controversial cryptocurrency exchange, it has been reported.

The 38-year-old Al Nassr star signed a partnership with Binance - the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes at the time, as per Reuters - last year.

Last November, Ronaldo announced his first NFT collection in partnership with Binance, telling his fans: "This is your chance to join my Web3 community and own iconic moments from my career."

Ronaldo recently posted about his involvement with Binance on Tuesday, writing on X (Twitter): "Cooking something up with Binance."

The company also sponsors the Alpine F1 Team, and recently ran a competition for a mini replica helmet worn by Pierre Gasly, who drives for the French outfit.

In January 2022, the exchange became the main sponsor of the Argentina national team and took over naming rights of the nation's top division, in what was a controversial deal. Binance terminated the agreement in July of this year, claiming that the AFA had not 'fully met its contractual obligations'.

In the same month, Binance was the subject of a lawsuit by a United States federal government watchdog over alleged financial impropriety. In response, Binance said the SEC's complaint was 'unjustified and should not be the subject of an SEC enforcement action', but that allegations were being taken 'seriously'.

Now, as reported by Coin Telegraph (via Goal), Ronaldo has been the subject of a proposed class-action lawsuit from three plaintiffs, who allege that they 'suffered severe losses from his promotion of crypto exchange Binance'.

They claim that users who signed up to Binance through Ronaldo's promotion were more likely to use the exchange for other reasons, such as investing in alleged 'unregistered securities'.

The filing alleges (via Goal): "Ronaldo's promotions solicited or assisted Binance in soliciting investments in unregistered securities by encouraging his millions of followers, fans and supporters to invest with the Binance platform."

The filing also alleges that Ronaldo was previously aware, or should have known, 'about Binance selling unregistered crypto securities, due to his 'investment experience and vast resources to obtain outside advisers'.

SPORTbible has contacted Cristiano Ronaldo and his representatives Gestifute for comment.