Steve Aoki is facing a class-action lawsuit over his Instagram posts promoting the trading card and nonfungible token (NFT) company MetaZoo.
Aoki became a part-owner of MetaZoo in 2021 and started collaborating extensively with the company, including by releasing a collectible card series to accompany his 2022 album HiROQUEST: Genesis. But according to the lawsuit, filed last Wednesday (Jan. 7), the DJ’s many Instagram posts about MetaZoo did not specify that he was getting paid to promote the trading cards and their virtual blockchain counterparts.
“Plaintiff and class members purchased the MetaZoo products at inflated prices, exclusively because of the way the MetaZoo products are advertised on social media and the misleading content of the advertisement,” reads the federal court complaint brought by a Florida attorney named Evan Berger.
The lawsuit brings false advertising and unfair trade claims against Aoki as well as Matt Kalish, the co-founder of DraftKings, who also posted about MetaZoo on social media. The company itself is not named as a defendant; it went bankrupt in 2024 and has since been sold to gaming startup GameQbator Labs.
Berger alleges he was influenced by Aoki and Kalish’s Instagram posts to buy 26 MetaZoo NFT tokens, which in 2022 were valued at north of $150,000 but are now “worthless.” He wants to represent thousands of people who bought MetaZoo cards and tokens in the last few years.
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“Prior to bankruptcy, MetaZoo had tens of millions of dollars in revenue, a good portion of which can be directly attributed to the undisclosed endorsements on social media by defendants,” the lawsuit says. “As a result, the estimated damages in this case are likely in the tens of millions.”
Reps for Aoki, Kalish and MetaZoo did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday (Jan. 12).
Aoki is among a slew of musicians who got wrapped up in the NFT craze of the early 2020s. Artists like The Chainsmokers and Snoop Dogg dropped their own virtual tokens in 2021, while many others took social media endorsement deals.
Many of these NFTs lost their sheen when the crypto markets plummeted in 2022, and lawsuits quickly followed. Celebrities including Justin Bieber and Madonna were sued for promoting the now-infamous “Bored Ape” NFT collection, allegedly pumping up the tokens’ values to the detriment of investors. That case remains pending.
