Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry face class-action lawsuit from FTX investors

The lawsuit claims legendary NBA team Golden State Warriors financially benefited from promoting disgraced crypto exchange FTX

article-image

Photo by Keith Allison(CC BY-SA 2.0) modified by Blockworks

share

NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry are facing a class action lawsuit over the collapse of FTX. 

The class action lawsuit claims that both the Golden State Warriors and Curry engaged in a conspiracy that “​​substantially assisted or encouraged the wrongdoing conducted by the FTX Group.”

“The FTX Group and Defendants made numerous misrepresentations and omissions to Plaintiffs and Class Members about the deceptive FTX platform in order to induce confidence and to drive consumers to invest in what was ultimately a Ponzi scheme,” the lawsuit claims. 

They also claim that the Warriors “did not disclose that they were being compensated by FTX for promoting the sale of unregistered FTX securities.” 

The basketball franchise also allegedly “had a financial incentive to induce Plaintiffs to invest with FTX” because it was an international rights partner.

In 2021, the team announced a partnership with FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange started as the official cryptocurrency platform and NFT marketplace of the Golden State Warriors. 

In April 2022, the Warriors offered an NFT collection in partnership with FTX. Because the collection was minted on FTX, fans “must have had a FTX US account to mint and participate in the 1-of-1 auction.”

In addition, the partnership with Shaquille O’Neal and the Astrals NFT project he developed with his son, Myles O’Neal, required investors to have a “funded FTX account” in order to participate in the sale.  

Stephen Curry, one of the stars on the team, notched a global ambassador deal with FTX in September 2021. 

The lawsuit claims that Curry was ”paid, at least in part, in FTX stock and/or stock options – the value of which depended on the financial success of FTX.” Therefore, he had incentive to promote the former crypto exchange.

After FTX declared bankruptcy in November of last year, the Golden State Warriors axed their deals with FTX. 

The Golden State Warriors aren’t the only sports team to be targeted in crypto-related lawsuits. Mark Cuban and his team, the Dallas Mavericks, faced a lawsuit from Voyager customers after the crypto lender also declared bankruptcy. 

The lawsuit also claims that Voyager was a “massive Ponzi scheme.

The suit alleges that the Mavericks and Cuban “teamed up” with Voyager and made “false representations and [employed] other means of deception. As a result, the Voyager plaintiffs and Voyager class members all sustained losses in excess of $5 billion.” 

Curry has been mentioned in another class action lawsuit involving FTX, which was made infamous by Shaquille O’Neal after he managed to evade process servers for months before being served in the former FTX Arena.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).jpg

Research

Jupiter has emerged as the undisputed liquidity backbone of Solana, commanding over 90% of spot DEX aggregation and 80% of perp trading volume. But behind the numbers lies a far more ambitious play: a cross-chain, vertically integrated super-app spanning swaps, synthetics, NFTs, memecoins, and launchpads. This report explores Jupiter’s rapid rise, the monetization upgrades reshaping its revenue profile, and the risks that could unwind its dominance, from token dilution to competition. With annualized revenues nearing $300M, the upside is undeniable, if it can navigate the turbulence.

article-image

Curve founder Michael Egorov is working on a new protocol designed to eliminate impermanent loss, rethink token emissions, and capture BTC-native yield

article-image

Mining outfits have gone bust in the wake of prior halvings. Not so this time around.

article-image

Zora’s announcement that its token is for “fun only” sparked a debate about the need for such tokens

article-image

In recent weeks, Helium has hit new all-time highs while passing major protocol milestones

article-image

Financial advisers in a January survey said equity ETFs were their top choice for gaining crypto exposure in 2025

article-image

“Why put a target out there that’s really speculative, not knowing exactly where this environment is going to go?” CarMax CEO Bill Nash said