Former OpenSea chief product officer Nate Chastain has been convicted of fraud and money laundering, Reuters said on Monday. May 3.
Chastain purchased non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which he chose to present on the OpenSea marketplace and sold these assets shortly thereafter.
This earned him $50,000 in illegal profits, according to the report.
Defense attorneys said Chastain was held to a “standard that didn’t exist” due to OpenSea’s lack of a sensitive information policy. Similar arguments in Chastain’s defense were reported on May 2, as attorneys suggested that Chastain’s decisions regarding submitted NFTs “were not considered by OpenSea to be confidential at the time.”
However, prosecutor Allison Nichols said Chastain ‘misused his status at OpenSea’ for profit and said the fact that he used an anonymous account for trading demonstrated he knew his actions were wrong. .
The incident has been ongoing since 2021. Chastain resigned from OpenSea following the September 2021 incident. The Southern District of New York announced charges against Chastain in June 2022 and Chastain’s trial began in January 2023.
The case is the first in the United States to involve insider trading in digital assets.
Former OpenSea executive Nate Chastain convicted in an insider trading case appeared first on CryptoSlate.