Justin Bieber, Eminem Among 19 Celebrities to Get Grievance Letters for Promoting NFTs: Here’s Why

TINA has written letters to the celebrities, highlighting issues related to the financial risks they are exposing their followers to.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 16 August 2022 17:53 IST

Justin Bieber, Eminem Among 19 Celebrities to Get Grievance Letters for Promoting NFTs: Here’s Why

Photo Credit: Reuters

NFTs are blockchain-based digital collectibles, inspired by real life or virtual objects

Highlights

Reese Witherspoon, DJ Khalid among receivers of letters
Tina.org hasn’t sought legal charges against the celebrities
Tina.org intends to safeguard NFT buyers from scams

Justin Bieber, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Paris Hilton have been named among 19 celebrities who allegedly promoted NFT projects without revealing their associations with the projects, according to an independent, non-profit, advertising watchdog. Reese Witherspoon, DJ Khalid, Floyd Mayweather, Madonna, and Logan Paul have also been named by the consumer watchdog group Truth in Advertising (TINA), that promotes safe advertising across sectors. NFTs or non-fungible tokens are blockchain-based digital collectibles, inspired by real life or virtual objects, and a US regulator has previously warned about the risks of celebrity endorsed NFTs.

The TINA organisation has written letters to these celebrities, highlighting grievances related-to the financial risks they are exposing their followers to, by promoting risky NFTs.

“This means that consumers may be unaware that the endorsements are not only biased, but also increase the value of the company and the NFTs that the celebrities own (known as ‘artificial price influences'),” TINA said in a statement.

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The sales of NFTs reached $25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,84,700 crore) in 2021 as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity, data from market tracker DappRadar showed.

Amid the trend of owing NFT catching pace among celebs and other members in the crypto community, the sector was quick to gather the attention of scamsters as well.

Several NFT projects made the rounds on social media, that lured investors into pouring money, and later abandoned these investors.

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In fact, even the US Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors that even celebrity endorsed NFTs should be approached with caution.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, NFTs, Non Fungible Tokens, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Snoop Dogg

Radhika Parashar

Email Radhika

Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More