Prosecutors Say Former OpenSea CEO Made Free Money From NFTs – Cryptopolitan
In a groundbreaking insider trading case centered around non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a former chief product officer at OpenSea, Nathaniel Chastain, is accused of fraud and money laundering.
Chastain is accused of using confidential information to purchase NFTs that he chose to display on OpenSea’s website and then selling them for over $50,000 in illegal profits.
Chastain’s defense
Chastain’s defense attorney, Daniel Filor, argued that his client was never informed by the company that its decisions regarding NFTs featured on the website were confidential information.
According to Filor, OpenSea did not maintain confidentiality regarding Chastain’s decisions at that moment.
While the defense did not dispute that Chastain made the trades, Filor emphasized that the situation was not comparable to confidential Wall Street M&A information.
This case could have wider implications for digital assets and how they fit into existing regulations aimed at preventing insider trading.
The prosecutor’s argument
Prosecutor Thomas Burnett argued that Chastain knowingly acted improperly by using anonymous accounts to trade NFTs. Burnett stated that Chastain used OpenSea’s information as if it were his “own piggy bank,” equating the situation to “free money.”
The OpenSea NFT marketplace, which has long been considered a leader in its field, now faces stiff competition from a relatively new player, Blur.
In the first quarter of 2023, Blur’s trading volume skyrocketed to an astonishing $2.7 billion, representing an unprecedented 783.89% increase compared to the previous quarter.
This exceptional increase in trading activity has enabled Blur to capture a remarkable market share of 57.44%, indicating its increasing dominance in the sector.
In Q1 2023, Blur recorded a trading volume of $2.7 billion, an increase of 783.89% from Q4 2022, and had a market share of 57.44%.
Despite a slight decline in trading volume in March, Blur’s market dominance has remained strong, with the platform holding an impressive 70.5% market share.
These figures serve as proof of the platform’s robust growth trajectory and its ability to compete with established market leaders such as OpenSea.
The NFT market in 2023
Q1 2023 proved to be a strong period for the NFT market, with a 137% increase in trading volume, reaching a total value of $4.7 billion.
Although there was a 15.65% decrease in trading volume in March, the overall performance remained bullish, with 19.4 million NFT sales in Q1 2023, an increase of 8.56% from the last quarter of 2022.
Ethereum continues to dominate the NFT market, accounting for 89.50% of the market share in March. Its quarterly trading volume increased by 245.43% to $4.1 billion in Q1 2023, compared to Q4 2022.
CryptoPunks was the most traded NFT collection on Ethereum, with a trading volume of $241 million, an increase of 1,214% from the previous month.
The NFT market is in continuous development, with new players entering the scene and changing market dynamics. Solana, for example, has risen to second place with a trade volume of $242 million, an increase of 4.55% from the previous quarter.
The Monkey Kingdom collection was a significant driver for Solana’s NFT protocol in March, with trading volume of $7.9 million, doubling from February.
The announcement of two popular NFT collections Solana bridge to Ethereum and Polygon in December significantly affected the blockchain.
On March 27th, the co-founder of ‘DeGods’ and ‘y00ts’ announced the first sale of y00ts on Polygon, marking the successful bridge of one of the collections.
