Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather Set to Win Ethereum Max Lawsuit

Billionaire businesswoman Kim Kardashian and boxer Floyd Mayweather are set to win a lawsuit accusing them of scamming investors with the obscure cryptocurrency EthereumMax. 

U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald on Monday issued a tentative court ruling saying that lawyers for the disgruntled investors were “trying to act like” the SEC, as first reported by Bloomberg. Tentative rulings show how a judge is set to rule in a case before it hits court. 

In January, investors sued the mega rich celebs, claiming they worked to pump the price of EthereumMax tokens and then dump them, leaving others out of pocket. 

EthereumMax—or EMAX—is a token that runs on Ethereum, the blockchain behind the world’s second biggest cryptocurrency. It made headlines when it was promoted by celebrities last year but doesn’t appear to have any utility.

Fitzgerald reportedly added that the celebrities did not “care to label the tokens as a security for obvious reasons.” 

But back in October, Kim Kardashian agreed to pay the SEC $1.26 million to settle the charges against her for shilling EMAX.

The reality TV star shared via an Instagram story “a big announcement” where she talked about EMAX’s tokenomics. 

Despite the hefty settlement, Instagram queen Kim—who has 333 million followers on the platform—neither admitted to nor denied the regulator’s charges. 

SEC chair Gary Gensler later said the high-profile case was picked up by the government agency because the Instagram post failed to mention how much Kim Kardashian was paid to promote EMAX—something necessary when promoting securities. 

Later, the UK Financial Conduct Authority chair Charles Randell called Kim’s post the “financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history.”