Floyd Mayweather Jr., Paul Pierce among celebs sued for crypto endorsement —report

Retired five-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is in for another fight but not inside the ring as he is among a group of celebrities facing a class-action lawsuit that alleges that they played a role in what some investors have labeled a cryptocurrency “pump and dump” scam.

Together with former NBA player Paul Pierce and Kim Kardashian, Mayweather is facing a lawsuit filed by a New York City resident on January 7 at the District Court for the Central District Court of California, according to a report by Wall Street Journal.

Cryptocurrency company EthereumMax was accused of collaborating with the celebrities to make "false and misleading" promotions that generated artificial interest in the cryptocurrency tokens.

A report by CNBC said that EthereumMax had lost 97 percent of its value since June of 2021.

Mayweather, 44, heavily promoted EthereumMax on social media before his boxing exhibition with YouTube sensation Logan Paul. The brash American also wore EthereumMax on his trunks during the bout.

Pierce also promoted EthereumMax on his social media account in May of 2021, after his firing from ESPN.

.@espn I don’t need you. I got @ethereum_max I made more money with this crypto in the past month then I did with y’all in a year. TRUTH shall set u Free ???????? my own Bosshttps://t.co/3irnuWYve3 check it out for yourself

— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) May 26, 2021

“Defendants’ strategy was a success. The misleading promotions and celebrity endorsements were able to artificially increase the interest in and price of the EMAX Tokens…causing investors to purchase these losing investments at inflated prices,” the lawsuit read.

EthereumMax disputed the allegations thrown against them, calling the narrative around the allegations "deceptive" and "riddled with misinformation.

—JMB, GMA News