NFT ARREST Reveals Mysterious Plot – First Time In History!
(RightWing.org) – A former executive has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering in the first-ever fraud case involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Prosecutors say he used insider knowledge to profit from selling the digital collectibles instead of stocks. It’s an old crime updated for a new asset.
The Department of Justice pursued an NFT-related insider trading charge for the first time ever. 🚨
Former OpenSea executive charged with NFT insider trading 🔍
Read more! 👇 https://t.co/VIo4FXZ2yF
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) June 2, 2022
NFTs are the new big thing in tradable assets, and they’re also a very controversial subject. An NFT is a digital object, for example, an image or piece of music, that’s protected through identity verification by the blockchain technology used in cryptocurrency. This protection means someone can’t simply copy and share it because it’s stored in the blockchain, which works like a digital asset register.
Many investors are very excited about NFTs, and the market for them has been growing fast over the last two years — in 2021, more than $17 billion was spent on them, compared to just $82 million in 2020. Others say they’re a bubble or even a Ponzi scheme, while the energy costs of running the blockchain have also been criticized.
The largest online NFT marketplace is OpenSea, and Justice Department officials say that NFTs featured on the OpenSea website sell for significantly more than similar ones. Former OpenSea product manager Nate Chastain thought that, too — and prosecutors say he used his knowledge of what items would feature on the site to secretly buy them before they were listed, then resell them for two to five times what he’d paid. To hide this insider trading, he used anonymous cryptocurrency wallets to buy and sell.
The DOJ says Chastain bought around 45 NFTs in 2021, in 11 separate purchases. If he’s found guilty he faces up to 40 years in prison.
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