Nike NFT Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Alleged ‘Rug Pull’

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Nike faces a proposed class action lawsuit after allegedly pulling the rug out from under non-fungible token (NFT) buyers, leaving them with “obsolete” digital assets and significant financial losses after the shutdown of its virtual sneaker brand RTFKT.

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The 42-page lawsuit says Nike acquired RTFKT in December 2021, hoping to tap into the red-hot NFT market. According to the case, RTFKT sold the Nike NFTs until abruptly announcing in December 2024 that it would be winding down operations.

Following this announcement, Nike NFT prices plummeted and have yet to recover, the complaint asserts.

“Investors were decimated,” the Nike NFT lawsuit states. “With the end of RTFKT and, by extension, Nike’s many targeted promotional initiatives aimed at hyping up the Nike NFTs and stimulating demand, the reason that so many had purchased the Nike NFTs—to complete quests to gain access to additional NFTs or physical Nike products, and/or to resell the Nike NFTs on the secondary market to others—evaporated instantly.”

The lawsuit claims the cryptocurrency community widely regarded RTFKT’s closure as part of a brazen “rug pull” by Nike. In the NFT world, a “rug pull” is a scam in which a project developer hypes up a digital asset to draw investors before quickly abandoning the project—disappearing with raised funds and leaving buyers with worthless NFTs, the case explains.

The complaint further notes that Nike, as an issuer of NFTs, was required to file registration statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and comply with relevant securities laws. Per the suit, the Nike NFTs were, in fact, never registered as such.

The filing argues that consumers would not have paid as much for the NFTs, or bought them at all, had they known the digital assets were unregistered securities or foreseen Nike’s alleged rug pull.

The lawsuit looks to represent all individuals who purchased or otherwise acquired the Nike NFTs within the applicable statute of limitations period and were damaged thereby.

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