What do Kim Kardashian, boxer Floyd Mayweather and former Boston Celtics player Paul Pierce have in common?

All three individuals are named in an ongoing lawsuit filed in January by investors alleging they suffered losses after the celebrities promoted EthereumMax; a crypto token built on the Ethereum network by anonymous developers.

Kim Kardashian said on Monday she would pay more than $1 million to settle allegations that she promoted EthereumMax without disclosing she was compensated to do so.

So, what is EMAX?

EthereumMax, or EMAX, is a crypto token built last year on the Ethereum network by anonymous developers. The developers claim in their white paper a grand vision of building “a robust and scalable ecosystem that fully maximizes the power of DeFi,” ambitious aims that have yet to be realized.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that Kardashian received $250,000 to publish a post on her Instagram account about EMAX tokens. Kardashian did not admit to nor deny the allegations as part of the settlement. She agreed instead not to endorse any digital tokens for three years.

EMAX investors also sued boxer Floyd Mayweather after EMAX was accepted as payment for Mayweather’s fight against YouTuber Logan Paul last year, and the star boxer was booed at last year’s Bitcoin Conference for wearing an EMAX T-shirt.

Kardashian’s Lawyers were unsuccessful in their August move to dismiss the lawsuit. Her lawyers claimed the plaintiffs didn’t specifically say in the original court filing that they had seen Kardashian’s Instagram post. Last week, Mayweather’s lawyers also moved to dismiss the suit, saying in their filing investors were simply looking for a “deep pocket.” 

Former Boston Celtics player Paul Pierce, also named in the lawsuit, tweeted about EMAX several times, including in May 2021 after he was fired by ESPN.

Pierce tweeted, @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

The digital token of the Ethereum network, EMAX reached a high of $0.00000092 in May 2021 but has decreased 99% since then. The token dropped by as much as 4% on Monday morning on the news of Kardashian’s settlement before rebounding, gaining nearly 7%, according to CoinMarketCap.

The token’s market cap was hovering around $8.7 million as of Monday.

Source: https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/10/03/ethereummax-emax-kim-kardashian-sec-settlement/