Ex-OpenSea employee charged in first NFT insider trading case

In a landmark decision, US prosecutors from Manhattan, New York have charged Nathaniel Chastain, 31, with insider trading of NFTs. Chastain is a former product manager at OpenSea , the largest NFT marketplace in the world by trading volume.

According to Reuters, Chastain is accused of secretly purchasing 45 NFTs on 11 separate occasions based on confidential information that those NFTs, or others by the same creator, would soon be featured on OpenSea's homepage.

Additionally, prosecutors even say that Chastain had influence over which NFTs were to be featured, and often sold his NFTs soon after their price shot up on OpenSea. He typically made a two to five times return on his initial investment.

Prosecutors said this scheme ran from June 2021 to November 2021, with Chastain using anonymous cryptocurrency wallets to avoid detection.

"NFTs might be new, but this type of criminal scheme is not," US Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan said in a statement seen by Reuters. "Today's charges demonstrate the commitment of this office to stamping out insider trading - whether it occurs on the stock market or the blockchain."

Chastain has pleaded not guilty to the charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Each charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. Bail bond was set at $100,000.