U.S. Prosecutors Will Not Retry OpenSea Insider Trading Case, Reaches Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Former Executive Chastain

Odaily News The U.S. Department of Justice will not retry the insider trading case against Nathaniel Chastain, a former manager at NFT platform OpenSea. The Manhattan federal court received a notice from prosecutors on Wednesday, stating that a deferred prosecution agreement had been reached with Chastain and the case will be dismissed in one month.

Previously, Chastain was convicted in 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering for using his position to purchase NFTs that were about to be featured on OpenSea's homepage and selling them for profit after their prices increased. However, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction in July of this year, ruling that the jury had received incorrect instructions and that the NFT homepage data did not constitute commercial value, thus failing to meet the definition of property under federal wire fraud laws.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that, considering Chastain has already served three months in prison and has agreed not to contest the forfeiture of 15.98 ETH valued at $47,330, the decision was made not to retry the case. (Cointelegraph)