The former executive at OpenSea, Nate Chastain, has been indicted for the charges of engaging in NFT wire fraud. He was arrested recently by the police for the charges of engaging in money laundering and participating in wire NFT fraud. The impeached head of the top NFT organization is also accused of performing insider trading.
The details about the trial and prosecution summary were issued by the US Attorney’s office recently from the Southern District of New York. Chastain has been under a cloud of suspicion for a long time. Cryptocurrency investors have heard rumors about him rushing to make purchases of the NFT collections that were finalized for a debut on the main page of the website.
OpenSea Faces Backlash from Investors
It is worth noting that OpenSea is the largest NFT platform in the world. The platform has been at the forefront of creating hype and increasing demand for the particular cryptocurrency product in the mainstream markets. Some of the most popular and most expensive NFT collections of the people are hosted on OpenSea.
The story of the top brass at OpenSea being accused and charged with insider trading has taken the internet by storm. The NFT collectors and cryptocurrency investors are demanding that the platform take the necessary steps to make the NFT trading more secure and transparent for its high net worth users.
TechCrunch reported the story about the fraudulent conduct and prosecution of the OpenSea executive as well.
The most shocking fact about the Nate Chastain story is that his illicit activities remained undetected by other top executives at the firm. Perchance, one of the NFT buyers, was able to uncover the fraud when he became suspicious and tracked the trade activities of Chastain on the Ethereum blockchain. However, as soon as the allegation became public, OpenSea management quickly fired Chastain.
Meanwhile, Chastain has decided to remain active on Twitter and NFT communities despite his impeachment and imprisonment.
Furthermore, OpenSea has acknowledged that the company did not have proper policies to ensure to curb insider trading and money laundering practices. Investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, and Paradigm valued OpenSea as a $13.3 billion enterprise.