U.S. charges OpenSea ex-employee in first NFT insider trading case

FILE PHOTO: A non-fungible token (NFT) displayed on the website of NFT marketplace OpenSea is seen through a magnifying glass, in this illustration picture taken February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan on Wednesday charged a former product manager at OpenSea, the largest online marketplace for non-fungible tokens, with insider trading, the first such case involving digital assets.

Nathaniel Chastain, 31, of Manhattan, was accused of secretly buying 45 NFTs on 11 separate occasions based on confidential information that the tokens, or others by the same creator, would soon be featured on OpenSea's home page.