The employee bought NFTs before they were promoted on the site’s homepage — and later sold them for a profit.
OpenSea says it has “requested and accepted” the resignation of an employee who bought NFTs before they were promoted on the site’s homepage — and later sold them for a profit.
The company’s head of product, Nate Chastain, had been accused of engaging in the controversial practice. Although not mentioned by name in OpenSea’s announcement, Chastain’s Twitter bio has now been updated to say he formerly worked there.
OpenSea is the world’s biggest marketplace for non-fungible tokens. In its latest statement, it said:
“When we launched OpenSea, there was only one collection on our platform: CryptoKitties. Today, there are 20 million NFTs to discover on OpenSea. We owe this growth to the vibrant community of creators and collectors who use our platform every day, and we have a strong obligation to this community to move it forward responsibly and diligently. The behavior of one of our employees violated that obligation.”
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Investigation Underway
OpenSea also confirmed that a third party is now conducting a thorough review of the incident — and that recommendations will be made on how to strengthen existing controls.
The statement went on to stress that OpenSea strives to be “a level playing field for buyers, sellers, creators, collectors, developers and those who are new to the space.”
On Wednesday, the marketplace — which recently attracted a valuation of $1.5 billion after a funding round — said the revelations were “incredibly disappointing.”
Employees have now been told they cannot buy or sell any collection that is being featured or promoted by the company — and warned confidential information can never be used to purchase an NFT, even if it isn’t available on OpenSea.
