OpenSea’s Head of Product Is Out Following Accusations of NFT Insider Trading

Nate Chastain, Head of Product at popular NFT marketplace OpenSea, appears to have stopped working with the company after being accused of NFT flipping using insider knowledge.

Head of Product is Out

Since being called out two days ago, Chastain’s Twitter profile has been updated to include the phrase “Past: @opensea”, suggesting that he is no longer employed with the marketplace.

Though this is not definitive proof that he was released from OpenSea due to the accusations, the likelihood is high.

CEO Devin Finzer has already updated his previous blog post related to the incident with news that OpenSea “requested and accepted” the resignation of one of their employees just yesterday for violating their “obligation to the community”.

In the update by the CEO, Finzer claims that OpenSea immediately commissioned a third-party investigation after news of the incident arose and is actively implementing its recommendations as review of the incident continues.

Despite mounting evidence against him, Nate Chastain is yet to release a public statement on the matter. Meanwhile, the Twitter consensus appears to be that he is guilty, and some are even ‘celebrating his demise’ with a new CryptoPhunk giveaway. However, others still show appreciation for the work Chastain has contributed to the NFT community and wish him the best moving forward, despite his wrongdoing.

The Accusations and the Evidence

Nate Chastain was accused of using insider information to purchase OpenSea NFTs before they were released on the platform’s homepage; then, he sold them for far higher profits.

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Chastain initially bought the NFTs using burner accounts to mask his identity; however, he was caught using blockchain data which revealed that his earnings from these accounts were all being transferred to his public address. OpenSea later released their blog post confirming that this “insider trading” indeed took place.

Chastain’s profits from the endeavor totaled 19 ETH, which is over $65k at press time.

This article was first published on: Sep 16, 2021