Former OpenSea Manager on Trial for Alleged NFT Insider Trading

Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at OpenSea, is facing charges of insider trading in the first criminal case of its kind involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Prosecutors allege that Chastain secretly bought NFTs based on confidential information that the tokens would soon be featured on OpenSea's homepage, and then profited illegally by selling them shortly thereafter. Chastain's trial is expected to last one to two weeks, and his lawyers argue that his actions were not insider trading and that the information he accessed had no inherent value to the company. The case could have broader implications for assets that do not fit into existing regulations preventing trading on material nonpublic information.