Ex-OpenSea Employee’s NFT Handling Runs into DOJ’s ‘Stradivarius’

When federal prosecutors accused an ex-OpenSea employee of insider trading, they didn’t charge him with securities fraud. They turned to their Louisville Slugger instead.

Nathaniel Chastain, who allegedly bought and sold nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the OpenSea app with secret information, was charged in June with wire fraud. The statute, along with the related mail fraud statute, is broad, adaptable and powerful. They’re federal prosecutors’ “Stradivarius, our Colt 45, our Louisville Slugger, our Cuisinart–and our true love,” federal judge and former prosecutor Jed Rakoff once quipped.

True love or not, wire fraud isn’t the typical approach in an “insider trading” …