On Wednesday, United States prosecutors in Manhattan charged Nathaniel Chastain, 31, with insider trading. Chastain is a former product manager at OpenSea, the largest nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace. This will be the first case of its kind regarding digital assets and traditional criminal investigations.
Prosecutors claim that Chastain bought 45 NFTs through anonymous hot wallets and anonymous accounts on OpenSea and then sold them for a profit shortly after. He allegedly bought them shortly before they were featured on the OpenSea marketplace homepage and sold them for a profit right after. As the product manager, it would have been in his power to choose which NFTs were featured, giving him direct access to the insider information that he, himself, created.