Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal has been granted final court approval to settle a class-action lawsuit for $11 million with Astrals non-fungible token (NFT) buyers.

Florida federal court judge Federico Moreno granted approval of the settlement between O’Neal and the class group led by Daniel Harper in an April 1 order made available on April 8.

The deal created a fund of up to $11 million for eligible class members and awarded $2.9 million in attorney fees and costs. All those who purchased Astrals NFTs from May 2022 to Jan. 15 and those who purchased the project’s native GLXY tokens up until mid-January are eligible. 

“The fee sought by lead class counsel has been reviewed and approved as fair and reasonable by plaintiffs,” Moreno’s order read.

O’Neal was hit with the lawsuit in May 2023 over his founding and promotion of the Solana-based Astrals NFT project, which the suit claimed was an “offer and sale of unregistered securities.”

The class group said they bought Astrals NFTs and “suffered investment losses” due to O’Neal’s “conduct” in promoting the project.

In August, Judge Moreno recognized that the class suit had alleged that the former NBA player was a seller of the NFTs. O’Neal agreed to the settlement in November.

Screenshot from court order on final settlement. Source: Courtlistener

NFT sales slump

The Astrals NFT collection consisted of 10,000 unique 3D digital collectibles created in April 2022 by the artist Damien Guimoneau in a Solana-based project that promoted a virtual world where users could socialize and play with others, including the basketball star. 

Related: NFT sales plunge 63% in Q1, but Pudgy Penguins, Doodles buck trend 

There has been no activity or sales from the collection for the past two years, according to NFT marketplace OpenSea. 

Overall, NFT sales are still in deep bear market territory, with just $27 million sold as of April 7, down from more than $2 billion per week at the end of 2021, according to CryptoSlam.

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The artificial intelligence agent creation and monetization platform Virtuals Protocol has seen its daily revenue plummet to just $500 as demand for crypto AI agents continues to wane.

“Probably one of the wildest crypto charts of the cycle,” Blockworks researcher Sharples said in an April 8 X post.

Steep decline in AI agent creation

Sharples said that it has “been about a week” since a new AI agent launched on Virtuals compared to late November when the platform was helping make over 1,000 new AI agents a day, according to Dune Analytics data.

On Jan. 2, when the Virtual Protocol (VIRTUALS) token hit an all-time high of $4.61, Blockworks data shows Virtuals’ daily revenue soared above $500,000. 

However, that seemed to mark the start of a downtrend, signaling a potential top for the AI agent sector. The decline continued even after a Jan. 25 announcement that the project had expanded to Solana.

On April 7, Sharples pointed out that Virtuals generated “less than $500” in daily revenue, with its token price falling as low as $0.42. 

Virtuals Protocol’s AI agents have generated a total lifetime revenue of $39.1 million. Source: Dune Analytics

The total AI agent market cap is $153.81 million, according to Dune Analytics. However, $76.6 million of that portion is allocated to AIXBT, which analyzes crypto sentiment on the social media site X to pick up on trends.

AIXBT has dropped 92% since hitting an all-time high of $0.90 on Jan. 16. As time of publication, it was trading at $0.07, according to CoinMarketCap data.

DeGen Capital core contributor Mardo said the current market conditions have played a role in Virtuals’ decline, but it could also be tied to terms Virtuals has with builders, such as “withholding token taxes that other platforms freely give back.” 

Virtuals’ struggles come against the backdrop of the entire crypto market experiencing a downturn alongside global financial markets, as US President Donald Trump continues to ramp up tariffs and fears grow that it may lead to a recession.

AI agents in current form are “garbage”

However, many criticized AI agents for their lack of functionality. AI commentator, BitDuke said of the Virtuals’ revenue decline, “ChatGPT wrappers are no longer interesting, who could have guessed.”

Related: Not every AI agent needs its own cryptocurrency: CZ

AI commentator “DHH,” said in an April 8 X post, “I’m as AI positive as the next guy, but you’re delusional if you think any AI agent is full-on replacing a great programmer today. Who knows about tomorrow, but that day hasn’t arrived yet.”

Meanwhile, Infinex founder Kain Warwick recently told Magazine that AI may possibly have a comeback despite the “first version of AI slop agents” being “garbage.”

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The team behind US first lady Melania Trump’s memecoin, Melania Meme (MELANIA), has moved $30 million worth of the token out of the project’s community funds and has begun selling them, says blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps.

Bubblemaps said in an April 7 X post that 50 million MELANIA tokens worth around $30 million “was moved from community funds — and is now being quietly sold, with no explanation from the team.”

It added the tokens were moved to a single wallet before being “split across multiple addresses.” From there, Bubblemaps said $3 million worth were transferred to exchanges, two new $6 million positions were opened, and $500,000 worth of MELANIA was sold.

Source: Bubblemaps

“No one from the MELANIA team has addressed this. Not the movements. Not the selling,” it added.

Bubblemaps said that 92% of MELANIA’s supply is held by “team wallets” and claimed that “the damage isn’t done yet.” 

MELANIA freefalls from peak high 

The MELANIA token was launched on Jan. 19, a day after Donald Trump launched his own memecoin and a day before he was due to re-enter the White House.

The token has essentially lost all its value since launch and is down over 96% from its January high of over $13, and is trading at $0.51 — down over 7.5% in the last day, according to CoinGecko.

Bubblemaps said last month that it found that Hayden Davis, who said he helped create MELANIA, had started “covertly selling $MELANIA tokens via single-sided liquidity.”

Related: Libra, Melania creator’s ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ memecoin crashes 99%

The firm claimed Davis had also used the tactic to quietly sell LIBRA, a memecoin he also copped to making that was shared by Argentine President Javier Milei, which caused a political scandal after the token’s value cratered.

Interest in memecoins has recently waned amid a wider market rout with data from Dune Analytics in March finding that the number of tokens graduating from Solana-based memecoin launchpad, Pump.fun, had dropped by over two-thirds since January, falling from 5400 per week to just 1500. 

The total number of tokens launching on Solana is also down, with data from SolScan showing only 31,651 launched on April 5, less than one-third of the 95,578 created at the peak of the memecoin frenzy this year on Jan. 26.

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