NFT insider trading ⚖️

Nate Chastain’s arrest, goblintown booms, the Zora API is live, & more!

Jun 3

Metaversal is a Bankless newsletter for weekly level-ups on NFTs, virtual worlds, & collectibles

Dear Bankless Nation,

This week, former OpenSea head of product Nate Chastain was arrested and indicted in New York on one count of money laundering and one count of wire fraud in connection to his insider trading activities at OpenSea last year.

Some thought the charges showed America’s regulatory floodgates were opening. Many others wondered what this meant for some NFTs’ potential status as securities.

However, the case against Chastain seems pretty singular, since it’s based upon his defraudment of OpenSea, his employer, via front page listings he helped determine while at OpenSea.

𒐪 @SHL0MS

@thenftattorney maybe i'm naive but seems like 99% of people employed in crypto aren't trading on information they're directly responsible for determining

Additionally, NFTs don’t have to be securities for the U.S. regulators to crack down on manipulative and fraudulent practices in the space, as many web3 lawyers have noted by now.

Collins Belton @collins_belton

Regardless, as I said at the time, people should realize something doesn’t have to be a security to still be hit with fraud/manipulation based claims under commodities or FTC rules. This could be really telling for a lot of crypto practices by insiders and influencers.

We’ll have to wait and see how Chastain’s defense goes, and I’ll keep you updated in Metaversal along the way. In the meantime, thanks for reading as always, and I hope you have a great weekend.

-WMP

🙏 Sponsor: Rarible – discover & trade NFTs across multiple blockchains and communities✨

🛒 NFT News & Platforms

Zora published the Zora API, which can be used to retrieve all sorts of useful data related to ERC721 NFTs.
Gem rolled out a Smart Collection Search feature.
GoDaddy published a primer on ENS domains for its corporate clients:

ENS Genius @ensgenius

.@GoDaddy publishes new article about .eth domains for their corporate clients, recommends “defensive registration” as best strategy for brands

Hyype added support for ENS domains.
Lens Protocol, the web3 social media project, allowlisted Pooly NFT holders.
Warner Bros. is tapping its Looney Tunes IP for a new series of NFT projects.

🏆 Digital Collectibles

goblintown.wtf has burst onto the NFT scene in rather absurd, but spectacular, fashion.
Nouns DAO sold Noun #287 to Lil Nouns DAO in a notable DAO-to-DAO deal.
Crypto Coven opened up summonings for its Coven Cats expansion collection.
Avastars are going 3D.
Animon rugged collectors to the tune of ~$6.3M, per a new ZachXBT investigation.
Rollbit, an NFT-based casino, purchased 12 Bored Apes for distributing as jackpot prizes:

Cirrus @CirrusNFT

Gambling website Rollbit has purchased 12 Apes for a total cost of 1305.9Eth (~$2,572,623) over the last 21 hours. They give the Apes away as prizes for hitting the jackpot on their site Insane marketing move, and possibly a nice FOMO inducing spark for NFTs as a whole

🎨 Art

Jim Carrey, via MoonPay, purchased The Wild Within - ‘Devotion’ on SuperRare:

Jim Carrey @JimCarrey

This one stops me. James Joyce said that’s a good thing. Thank you @ryankoopmans for gently capturing nature's exquisite and relentless reinvention. BTW you’re my first NFT. @SuperRare superrare.com/artwork-v2/the…

Justin Maller is releasing his new FACETS series on June 15th.
SuperRare announced its Space Race 3 winners.

🎮 NFT Gaming

Midnight Society, the video game studio founded by streamer extraordinaire Dr. Disrespect, announced a collaboration with Polygon Studios; the partners will work together to develop a trading platform for in-game items.
Method, one of the world’s most renowned esports organizations, has started an NFT gaming guild.
Axie Infinity launched public testing for its new Lunacian Codes referral feature.

💽 Music

Beat Foundry kicked off a public mint of Daniel Allan’s The Collages beat series:

Beat Foundry @BeatFoundryNFTs

▶︎▶︎ PUBLIC MINT LIVE ◀︎◀︎ 📢Minting is live for “The Collages” by @imdanielallan at beatfoundry.xyz. There are 732 beats remaining for 0.08 ETH each. Unlimited mints per address. Save gas minting multiple at once. Song & cover art will reveal on June 7. ♪ ♭f

Coopahtroopa.eth published This Week in Music NFTs - May 30th.

🌐 Virtual Worlds

Decentraland community members approved adding OnChainChains to Decentraland’s Wearables Registry system.
The Sandbox distributed 5M mSAND tokens to LAND holders.

💎 DeFi x NFTs

Sudoswap open-sourced its NFT AMM smart contract code.
JPEG’d unveiled The Citadel system.

Action steps

📺 Watch Decentralized Society | Interview with Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver, and Leon Erichsen on Green Pill
📺 Watch Interview with CoinFund founder Jake Brukhman on Overpriced JPEGs
🧐 Read my other latest write-ups EVM metaverse landscape and How to earn more Uniswap trading fees if you missed them
🧐 Check out the mintable Global Tax Guide created by BanklessDAO

Author Bio

William M. Peaster is a professional writer and creator of Metaversal—a Bankless newsletter focused on the emergence of NFTs in the cryptoeconomy. He’s also recently been contributing content to Bankless, JPG, and beyond!

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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.

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