By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
It has been revealed that the head of product Nate Chastain had been flipping NFTs from which he earned a massive wealth.
Following the accusations against Nate Chastain that he was using insider knowledge and information to buy NFTs scheduled to feature on the OpeSea’s homepage, it appears that the NFT marketplace head of product has finally turned in his resignation as his Twitter bio now indicates that he once worked with the firm.
Nate Chastain’s activities became known after a collaborative investigation within the crypto community where it was revealed by ZuwuTV that the erstwhile head of product was using a secret wallet to buy NFTs that would be featured on the front page of OpenSea.
This drew a wide reaction from community members who took advantage of OpenSea’s accessibility and its semi-transparency to dig deeper. They found out that several transaction records confirmed that the head of product, Nate Chastain, had been flipping NFTs from which he earned a massive wealth.
OpenSea Reacts to Insider Trading
Following this revelation, OpenSea responded in a blog post:
“We learned that one of our employees purchased items that they knew were set to display on our front page before they appeared there publicly. This is incredibly disappointing. We want to be clear that this behaviour does not represent our values as a team. We are taking this very seriously and are conducting an immediate and thorough review of this incident so that we have a full understanding of the facts and additional steps we need to take.”
“We have a strong responsibility to our community, and we take any breach of trust incredibly seriously. We’ve taken additional steps to address this and are investing in policies that move the space towards greater transparency and openness,” wrote the firm’s CEO Devin Finzer on Twitter.
As part of its new policies, the team member may not have the privilege to buy or sell from NFT collections or creators while being featured or promoted. Additionally, they would be prohibited from using internal knowledge to buy or sell NFTs.
Reactions Trail OpenSea’s Action
Reactions from the NFT community showed some level of relief. One of such came from yuppie.eth, a community member and co-host of the Spaces, who said that they “just invented anti-insider trading by putting this on blast. If this were a humongous trading firm, they would have done so much to bury the story.”
Another from OK Hotshot “It’s nice words from OpenSea, but we have heard those words before. If they follow through, this could turn into a good thing.”
However, some have argued in favor of Nate Chastain saying he broke no law but many have also drawn attention to the fact that his actions could result in more regulatory scrutiny for the space.