Ex OpenSea Employee, Disgraced For Insider Trading, Returns To NFTs

Insider trading has always been rampant in financial markets. Anyone caught red-handed will usually step down from their positions. But what would you feel if one of these culprits is back into business?

Today we found out that ex OpenSea exec, Nate Chastain who was disgraced for insider trading is now returning to the NFT space. He is reportedly working on a new NFT platform called Oval.

Ex OpenSea Exec involved in insider trading tries to make a comeback

Back in September 2021, Nate Chastain was OpenSea’s Head of Product. During that time, a Twitter user caught him buying front-page drops before the drops’ listings. He used his position for insider trading and reportedly made 19 ETH or $67,000 in profit. Consequently, OpenSea confirmed the trade scandal and Chastain had to resign from his position.

Now after several months of laying low, Chastain attempts to return to NFTs by launching Oval, a new NFT platform that makes it easier for collectors to search for NFTs.

According to Coindesk, based on the company’s pitch deck in February 2022, Oval is looking to raise $3 million in seed funding. And if funding goes through, Oval will have a pre-money valuation of $30 million. However, an earlier version of the pitch deck shows that the company was trying to raise more. How much was it? A total of $7.5 million at a pre-money valuation of $50 million.

Final thoughts

Given that one of its co-founders was involved in insider trading before, it remains to be seen whether Oval can secure any funding to kickstart its business. If you ask me, insider trading happens wherever the money goes. Early this year, NFT Ethics accused MoonPay’s CEO of insider trading. In fact, the NFT community suspects that there are secret groups of insider traders lurking in a few of the popular NFT projects all this while. Even though this is not something we can control, we can at least choose not to participate in foul play.