Ex-OpenSea Executive Appeals Conviction, Argues NFT Information Not Property

According to Decrypt, Nathaniel Chastain, a former OpenSea executive convicted of fraud and money laundering in May, has appealed his conviction in a federal court. Chastain's attorneys argue that the insider information he used for personal gain was not OpenSea's property. Chastain had profited from several NFT collections he chose to feature on the marketplace's homepage. His attorneys claim that the information he used to enrich himself was not the company's property, as his manipulation of it did not come at a cost to OpenSea. Chastain netted over $50,000 by buying up NFTs he would feature on OpenSea's homepage and selling them for profit after they sold out. His attorneys do not dispute his actions but argue that the information was not OpenSea's property. In August, Chastain received a three-month prison sentence, three months' house arrest, three years of probation, and a $50,000 fine. Prosecutors hailed the case as the first-ever digital asset insider trading scheme. Chastain's attorneys also took issue with this claim in their filing, stating that the original judge found the case to be an odd one where the victim did not feel victimized.