Jimmy Butler Seeks Dismissal in Binance Lawsuit

Jimmy Butler, a professional basketball player, has sought to be dismissed from a class-action lawsuit targeting celebrities involved in the alleged promotion of unregistered securities by Binance, claiming that the tweets in which he appeared did not promote the aforementioned securities.

In a filing dated July 24, Butler’s attorneys argued that three tweets he appeared in promoting Binance between February 2, 2022, and February 13, 2022, did not mention alleged unregistered securities and therefore could not have helped promote them.

They asserted that Butler’s tweets did not endorse any investment and instead cautioned against celebrity crypto endorsements, imploring prospective Binance customers to conduct their own research on crypto investments.

Butler was named alongside Binance, its CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and YouTubers Graham Stephan and Ben Armstrong, also known as BitBoy Crypto, in the March class-action lawsuit.

In 2022, Binance hired Butler, an All-Star for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association, to advertise the exchange in advance of that year’s Super Bowl.

On February 2, 2022, he first appeared in a video promoting a free nonfungible token (NFT) collection from Binance. Butler tweeted two more videos that month, on February 7 and February 13.

In the Binance-posted video, Butler states, “You’ll hear some of the biggest names telling you to invest in crypto, but they don’t know you or your finances.”

“Binance and I are here to tell you to believe in yourself and conduct your research,” he continued. In Butler’s first tweet for the exchange, he stated that Super Bowl participants who used the hashtag “#CryptoCelebAlert” could win one of 2,222 NFTs.

In another of Butler’s recordings, he encouraged his audience to trust themselves and conduct their own cryptographic research.

A complaint amended on June 27 alleged that Butler’s statements were deceptive because they appeared alongside the promotion of Binance’s gratis NFTs and exchange platform.

Zhao, Binance, and Armstrong have similarly submitted dismissal motions. The class action dismissed finance YouTuber Stephan from the lawsuit on June 15.