Five-time Ballon d’Or Cristiano Ronaldo is currently enmeshed in a lawsuit in the United States over his promotional affiliation with Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, as investors accused the Portuguese of endorsing “unregistered securities” and causing investment losses.

In the class action suit filed against Ronaldo on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, the plaintiffs accused the Al Nassr player of promoting and actively participating in the offers and sales of “unregistered securities” alongside Binance.

After joining Binance, in November 2022, the platform announced a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), virtual assets with no real-world existence, themed ‘CR7,’ which is Ronaldo’s brand name.

He promoted the NFTs on his social media accounts with more than 800 million followers, promising to change the NFT game and take football to the next level” and they eventually went on sale the same month with the least asset in the collection priced at $77.

But one year later, the worth has dropped drastically with $77 worth of NFT now being priced at $1 with investors claiming Ronaldo’s influence was crucial in convincing many investors to purchase “unregistered securities” which have massively cost them their investments.

The plaintiffs are seeking more than $1bn (£790m) in damages in the filed lawsuit, the BBC reported.