Former OpenSea Executive Asks US Court to Dismiss Insider Trading Charges

The Department of Justice (DOJ) accused Nathaniel Chastain, the former head of product of OpenSea, in June of this year on suspicion of taking part in wire fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors in Manhattan claimed that Chastain had covertly purchased non-fungible tokens (NFT) based on proprietary knowledge in what was thought to be the first case in the United States to charge insider trading in digital assets. The ex-executive is now requesting that insider trading allegations surrounding the sale of NFTs be dropped in a US court.

DOJ Case

Lawyers for Chastain contend in a document submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that NFTs cannot be categorized as securities or commodities, which is necessary for accusations of wire fraud. They also said that the US government simply brought charges in an effort to establish a legal precedent that NFTs are securities.

The DOJ asserts that Chastain purchased NFTs that were intended to be shown on OpenSea's site covertly before reselling them at a profit after they had been showcased. More precisely, he made 11 separate purchases of 45 NFTs based on secret knowledge.

The NFTs were sold by Chastain for a price that was two to five times what he originally paid after deciding to highlight them on the website. Chastain covered up his fraud by making these transactions through anonymous hot wallets and anonymous OpenSea user accounts. He has entered a not guilty plea to the two accusations, which each carry a potential 20-year jail term.

The NFT transactions in issue, according to his attorneys, were completed on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, which is open source and accessible to the public. They contend that this eliminates the possibility that the transactions were used for money laundering.

Request for Dismissal

Chastain's arguments center on the idea that while the law forbids insider trading to safeguard the financial markets, it does not require businesses to maintain the confidentiality of information. As a result, his legal team has submitted a request to dismiss the charges against him on the grounds that the NFTs were not the platform's property under the law.

In fact, the case presents challenging legal issues about whether insider trading in non-stocks or non-commodities is illegal.

The U.S. Supreme Court, according to Chastain, has restricted what constitutes wire fraud, which generally forbids plans to gain property. He is certain that from a legal standpoint, it is impossible to emphasize a particular NFT as property.

In September 2021, Chastain parted ways with OpenSea, the biggest online market for buying and selling NFTs. Since then, she has started working on a brand-new NFT platform called Oval.

OpenSea said this month that it would modify how it manages NFT assets that are reported as missing. When an NFT was flagged as stolen, the firm would previously prevent it from being purchased, traded, or transferred on its platform while it investigated each case. However, it is now necessary to file a police complaint within seven days of doing so.