Nathaniel Chastain, the former head of product at the NFT marketplace OpenSea, has been found guilty of insider trading and will spend three months in jail. Prosecutors argued that Chastain had bought numerous non-fungible tokens before they were featured on the platform’s home page and later sold them at much higher prices. Chastain maintained that the NFTs were not securities or commodities, but US District Judge Jesse Furman dismissed this claim.In May this year, a jury found Chastain guilty of wire fraud and money laundering. He was ordered to forfeit 15.98 ETH (worth around $26,000 at the time) and pay a $50,000 fine. In addition, the authorities determined in a recent court hearing that he was involved in insider trading, making over $57,000 by purchasing digital collectibles before OpenSea featured them on its home page and later selling them at substantial profits.The 33-year-old admitted that he let the community down with his actions and did not oppose the court’s decision. Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams believes the sentence could serve as a warning to other individuals who might attempt to do similar operations in the future. Judge Furman said the court decision was “unusually difficult” given the nature of the accusations, but he claimed that Chastain “knew exactly what he was doing, and he took advantage of an opportunity.” Chastain was sentenced to three months in prison, which is the first-ever insider trading case related to NFTs.
| Information |
Details |
| Geography |
North America |
| Countries |
|
| Sentiment |
negative |
| Relevance Score |
10 |
| People |
Nathaniel Chastain, Jesse Furman, Damian Williams |
| Companies |
OpenSea |
| Currencies |
Ethereum, Bitcoin, ETH, BTC |
| Securities |
None |
