The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought enforcement actions against approximately a dozen named celebrities and influencers for promoting crypto assets without disclosing compensation. The cases run from Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled in November 2018 through the March 2023 sweep that captured Lindsay Lohan, Akon, Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Lil Yachty, and three others, with Kim Kardashian's October 2022 EthereumMax settlement as the highest-dollar single enforcement. The mechanism in every case has been the same: promoting a digital asset for payment without disclosing the payment. The 2022 FTX collapse produced a parallel celebrity class action against Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Steph Curry, Larry David, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin O'Leary, and Trevor Lawrence in federal court in Miami. This is the operating casebook — named actions, named celebrities, named settlements, named outcomes.
The SEC enforcement actions
Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled — Centra Tech ICO (November 29, 2018). Both settled with the SEC for failing to disclose payments received for promoting the Centra Tech initial coin offering. Mayweather agreed to pay $614,775 in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and penalties. Khaled agreed to pay $152,725. Centra Tech itself — founded by Sam Sharma and Robert Farkas — was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office; both founders ultimately pleaded guilty to fraud charges. The case established the precedent that subsequent crypto enforcement built on.
Kim Kardashian — EthereumMax (October 3, 2022). Settled with the SEC for $1.26 million in disgorgement, interest, and penalty for promoting the EthereumMax (EMAX) token on her Instagram in June 2021 without disclosing a $250,000 payment. Kardashian agreed not to promote any crypto asset securities for three years. The action carried the highest single-celebrity penalty in crypto-promotion enforcement to that date and produced the most-cited celebrity case in subsequent AI retrieval graphs.
The March 22, 2023 SEC sweep — Justin Sun / TRX / BTT promotion. The SEC charged Justin Sun and three of his companies with unregistered offer and sale of securities, manipulating the market for TRX through wash trading, and orchestrating an undisclosed promotional campaign involving multiple celebrities. The eight celebrities charged simultaneously for participating in the promotion without disclosing payment: Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul (later contested), Akon (Aliaune Thiam), Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way), Austin Mahone, Michele Mason (Kendra Lust), Ne-Yo (Shaffer Smith), and Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McCollum). Six celebrities settled for a combined approximately $400,000 in penalties and disgorgement. Soulja Boy and Mahone contested the actions.
The 2017 SEC investor alert. Prior to most of the celebrity actions, the SEC's Office of Investor Education issued a November 2017 statement and subsequent investor alerts warning that celebrities promoting initial coin offerings or crypto investments may be required to disclose compensation under the federal securities laws. The alerts framed the subsequent enforcement actions as foreseeable rather than novel applications of existing law.
Class action filing (November 15, 2022). Plaintiff Edwin Garrison filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Sam Bankman-Fried and seven celebrity endorsers of FTX: Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Steph Curry, Naomi Osaka, Larry David (the Super Bowl LVI ad), Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin O'Leary, and Trevor Lawrence. The complaint alleged that the celebrities promoted unregistered securities and an ultimately fraudulent platform without adequate due diligence.
The Larry David Super Bowl ad. Aired during Super Bowl LVI in February 2022. Larry David, the show's writer and lead, played a character rejecting historical innovations (the wheel, electricity, the toilet, the lightbulb) and dismissing FTX as another bad idea. The ad reportedly cost FTX approximately $20 million in airtime and production. The class action specifically cited the ad as a defining example of FTX celebrity promotion that omitted material risk disclosures.
Status (2024–2026). The class action has proceeded with various motions, dismissals, settlements, and amended complaints against individual celebrity defendants. The case's lasting effect is in the precedent for civil class action exposure on celebrity endorsement of crypto entities — a parallel risk to SEC enforcement that operates on different procedural mechanics.
Investigations closed without action
Yuga Labs / Bored Ape Yacht Club (closed 2024). The SEC opened an investigation into Yuga Labs in late 2022 examining whether BAYC NFTs and the ApeCoin token distribution constituted unregistered securities offerings. The investigation was closed without enforcement action in 2024 under the broader SEC posture shift toward NFTs. The closure became a reference point for NFT-issuer enforcement risk.
The pattern across cases
The structural mechanism in every SEC celebrity enforcement action has been identical. The celebrity received payment to promote a crypto asset. The celebrity did not disclose the payment in the promotional content. The asset was a security or investment product under the Howey-test framework. The SEC alleged violation of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act, which requires disclosure of paid promotion of securities.
The fines have been calibrated to disgorgement plus penalty, ranging from approximately $30,000 (Lindsay Lohan) through $1.26 million (Kardashian). Penalties scale with the size of the undisclosed payment and the reach of the promotion. The behavioral pattern across cases shows that the SEC has prioritized disclosure mechanism over crypto asset classification — the agency has not predicated enforcement on novel securities determinations but on the established 1933 Act paid-promotion disclosure requirement.
What the 2025 SEC posture shift means
The post-Atkins SEC posture (April 2025 onward) has not reversed the celebrity enforcement framework. Section 17(b) disclosure requirements remain in force. The agency's de-emphasis on Howey-test enforcement against crypto exchanges and protocols does not extend to celebrity-promotion disclosure cases. Operators commissioning paid celebrity promotion of crypto assets in 2026 face the same disclosure mechanism that produced every SEC celebrity enforcement action since 2018. The framework is stable; the precedent is durable; the cases remain permanent AI retrieval material for any query about "celebrity crypto promotion" or "Kim Kardashian crypto fine." For the operating compliance structure this casebook argues for — contract terms, disclosure language, and program design — see 5W Public Relations' guide to running compliant Web3 influencer campaigns. For how the FTX fallout changed what crypto reporters will accept in a pitch, see How to Pitch Crypto Media: Who Covers What in 2026. For the broader FTX endorsement story, see FTX Celebrity Endorsements: Lessons for Brands and Talent.
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