{"id":62339,"date":"2022-06-02T10:48:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T07:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=62339"},"modified":"2025-09-05T17:19:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:19:44","slug":"u-s-authorities-charge-former-opensea-manager-with-insider-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/u-s-authorities-charge-former-opensea-manager-with-insider-trading\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. authorities charge former OpenSea manager with insider trading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former OpenSea head of product Nate Chastain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/former-employee-nft-marketplace-charged-first-ever-digital-asset-insider-trading-scheme\">charged<\/a> with wire fraud and money laundering in an insider trading scheme on the NFT marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>He faces up to 40 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>The case will be heard by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams and <span data-descr=\"Federal Bureau of Investigation\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FBI<\/span> Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll in New York states that this is the first-ever insider trading scheme involving digital assets.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2021, OpenSea severed ties with an unnamed employee involved in insider trading. This coincided with Chastain&#8217;s departure from the company, who was suspected of wrongdoing. The top executive allegedly used information about token listings on the homepage for personal gain.<\/p>\n<p>According to the indictment, Chastain pre-purchased tokens using anonymous wallets and marketplace accounts.<\/p>\n<p>From June through September 2021, the executive sold these assets two to five times above the purchase price.<\/p>\n<p>The charges indicate that the insider trading ban enforced in traditional markets applies to digital assets.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;NFT is a new phenomenon, but such criminal activity is not. We are demonstrating the department&#8217;s commitment to eradicating insider trading,&#8221;<\/em> Williams said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Platform representatives, in a conversation with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/linked\/149685\/former-head-of-product-for-opensea-indicted-after-insider-trading-scandal\">The Block<\/a>, confirmed that following the investigation they offered Chastain to leave the company.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in September 2021, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.io\/glava-opensea-byvshij-sotrudnik-ne-zanimalsya-insajderskoj-torgovlej\/\">said<\/a> that the actions of the dismissed marketplace employee were mischaracterized as insider trading.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogfeed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForkLog Feed<\/a> \u2014 the full feed of news, <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForkLog<\/a> \u2014 the most important news, infographics and opinions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former OpenSea director of product Nate Chastain was charged with wire fraud and money laundering in an insider-trading scheme on the NFT marketplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1156,1444,1265],"class_list":["post-62339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-institutional-investors-and-whales","tag-law-enforcement","tag-opensea"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"12","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62341,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62339\/revisions\/62341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}