Jul 31, 02:40 PM

Second Circuit Tosses NFT Insider-Trading Conviction of Ex-OpenSea Manager

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday vacated the wire-fraud and money-laundering conviction of former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain, concluding that the trial judge’s jury instructions misstated the law. The panel held that confidential information about which non-fungible tokens would be highlighted on OpenSea’s homepage did not constitute the company’s “property” under the wire-fraud statute and that jurors could have convicted Chastain merely for unethical conduct. Chastain, 33, was found guilty in May 2023 of using advance knowledge of forthcoming NFT listings to buy and later sell 15 tokens for a gain of roughly $57,000. He was sentenced to three months in prison in what prosecutors described as the first insider-trading case tied to digital assets. The appeals court sent the case back to the Manhattan federal district court for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan did not immediately comment on whether prosecutors will seek a retrial or pursue alternative charges.

#OpenSea #Nathaniel Chastain #Chastain #Manhattan

Written with ChatGPT .

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