Nike’s NFT Fumble: $5 Million Lawsuit for a Sneakerhead Sadness

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So, Nike just got served a class-action lawsuit accusing them of pulling the ultimate digital disappearing act by shutting down their NFT playground, RTFKT, faster than you can say “blockchain blunder.” Spoiler: It wasn’t pretty. 👟💨

A bunch of disgruntled sneaker fans, led by Jagdeep Cheema (who sounds like he’d rather be running a marathon than a courtroom drama), filed the suit in Brooklyn federal court on April 25. Their beef? Nike hyped up these virtual kicks like the second coming of Jordan’s Air Jordans, then ghosted the whole project—leaving investors stuck with a pixelated pair of empty promises.

The lawsuit waves the red flag that these NFTs were actually unregistered securities. Translation: Nike basically threw an SEC “Don’t look here” party, using their iconic swoosh and marketing wizardry to pump up these digital tokens like the crypto pied pipers of hype.

“Because the Nike NFTs derived their value from the success of a given promoter and project — here, Nike and its marketing efforts — investors purchased this digital asset hoping its value would moonwalk upwards as the project got more popular. Spoiler alert: It didn’t.”

Now they’re asking for $5 million in damages, claiming Nike broke consumer protection laws and messed with state trade and competition rules like a rookie on Wall Street with a calculator and a dream.

Fun fact: The courts still haven’t decided if NFTs are securities. Meanwhile, OpenSea sent a love letter (well, more like a legal memo) to the SEC on April 9 begging to keep NFTs out of federal securities laws. “They’re not a security,” they say. “They’re more like your friend who borrows your stuff but never returns it.”

The class-action crew reckon the court doesn’t even have to crack that riddle to see Nike’s mess for what it is.

NFT market value dips  (Because of course it did)

Throwback to 2021: Nike bought RTFKT Studios, those virtual sneaker wizards, presumably hoping to merge “just do it” with “just digital it.”

Investors were promised that their shiny new Nike NFTs could be traded like baseball cards at recess and used to unlock fun challenges and quests—basically, the digital equivalent of a scavenger hunt with reward-style bragging rights.

Back in April 2022, Nike’s crypto kicks were flying off the OpenSea shelves at around 3.5 Ether (~$8,000)—but just a year later, those same kicks were worth less than a fancy coffee at 0.009 Ether (~$16). Ouch. ☕💸

When Nike pulled the plug on RTFKT in January, this lawsuit argues that’s when the floor really fell out. Prices tanked, challenges disappeared, and their “value proposition” turned into a “value repossession.” In other words, investors got nothin’, nada, zilch.

Meanwhile, the overall NFT market hit a nosedive in Q1 2025, with sales plunging 63% year-over-year—dropping from a solid $4.1 billion to a barely-there $1.5 billion. So yeah, it’s not just Nike’s problem. It’s basically the digital equivalent of wearing socks with sandals. 🙈

Nike, predictably, had no comment when asked. Probably off figuring out how to turn their next lawsuit into a sneaker collab.

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2025-04-28 05:59