The major NFT marketplace has described the revelations as "incredibly disappointing."
The world’s biggest NFT marketplace has confirmed one of its employees bought digital collectibles that were going to be featured on the homepage — before they appeared there publicly.
OpenSea has described the revelations as “incredibly disappointing” and has vowed that a third party is going to head up an immediate and thorough review.
In the meantime, employees have 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.
The company’s statement added:
“For a new, more open internet that empowers creators and collectors, we will need to bake in trust and transparency into all that we do. We’re committed to doing the right thing for our users and earning back the trust of the community we serve.”
The allegations have dealt a blow to OpenSea, which recently commanded a $1.5 billion valuation.
Subscribe to the CoinMarketRecap podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
What Happened?
Collections that are featured prominently on OpenSea’s homepage tend to see their values surge because of the visibility this brings.
But on Twitter, the user @ZuwuTV recently wrote:
“Hey @opensea why does it appear @natechastain has a few secret wallets that appears to buy your front page drops before they are listed, then sells them shortly after the front-page-hype spike for profits, and then tumbles them back to his main wallet with his punk on it?”
They went on to share details of a transaction that Chastain was allegedly involved in.
The activity has been likened to insider trading by some on Crypto Twitter — and although such practice is illegal in the world of stocks, a lack of regulation means this doesn’t apply to NFTs.
CoinMarketCap has reached out to OpenSea — and Nate Chastain — for a comment.
