OpenSea Fraud Trial Moves to Closing Arguments

Jurors have begun deliberating within the fraud case in opposition to former OpenSea worker Nate Chastain. Chastain was fired from the NFT market on expenses of insider buying and selling. What is going on with the felony investigation in opposition to him?

Nate Chastain went from fan favorite to disgraced employee after accusations of fraud — Nate Chastain was a well-liked determine on NFT Twitter till allegations of insider buying and selling ruined his profession
Picture Credit score: TheLedger

What is going on with the OpenSea fraud case?

Nate Chastain, a former product supervisor for OpenSea and its most public-facing Twitter presence, was a well-liked NFT persona in the course of the NFT bull market of 2021. He promptly answered different customers’ questions on Twitter and developed a popularity for serving to to resolve points with the OpenSea NFT platform.

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In September 2021, nonetheless, Chastain was accused of insider trading. He allegedly front-ran collections that have been attributable to be featured on the entrance web page of OpenSea. Chastain did this maneuver by shopping for them with nameless wallets earlier than they have been featured on the homepage. After the NFTs went up in worth from being listed on OpenSea’s homepage, Chastain subsequently offered them for revenue.

Manhattan Federal prosecutors charged Chastain in June 2022 with netting greater than $50,000 in unlawful income. The costs in opposition to him embrace one rely of wire fraud and one rely of insider buying and selling.

Prosecutor Thomas Burnett acknowledged, “He knew that when he got here up with a plan for what to function on OpenSea’s web site, he was supposed to make use of that for the corporate, not for his personal achieve. His greed received out.”

Nate Chastain used his knowledge about what would be featured on OpenSea's homepage to his advantage — Chastain allegedly used insider data for revenue
Picture Credit score: OpenSea

Will Chastain be discovered responsible?

It stays unclear at this level. Daniel Filor, Chastain’s lawyer, stated his consumer didn’t break the corporate’s guidelines. He acknowledged, “Nate’s decisions in his head about which NFT to function weren’t thought of by OpenSea to be confidential.”

Burnett disagrees. The prosecutor pointed to Chastain’s utilization of nameless wallets as proof of guilt. He claimed, “If the defendant thought there was no downside utilizing inside info to purchase NFTs, he might have simply used common accounts. He did that to throw folks off his scent.”

Both means, we should always discover out quickly. The case is being adopted intently as this choice is bound to have wide-ranging implications for legal guidelines governing Web3 shifting ahead.

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