Ex-OpenSea Manager Wins Appeal: NFT Info Isn't 'Property'

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Nathaniel Chastain just caught a break. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit tossed his conviction on July 31, 2025. Big deal for NFTs.

The former OpenSea product manager had been fighting charges since 2023. Wire fraud. Money laundering. All that insider trading stuff with NFTs.

His lawyers made a pretty clever argument. They said confidential info about featured NFTs isn't really "property" under wire fraud laws. Not everything secret counts as property. It needs actual commercial value to the owner.

What did Chastain do? Bought like 45 NFTs right before they hit OpenSea's homepage. Sold them later. Made some ETH. Sweet profit.

The defense pointed out something interesting. OpenSea makes money from commissions when people trade NFTs. They weren't exactly "monetizing Chastain's ideas about which NFTs to feature." Kind of surprising when you think about it.

"OpenSea made money from Chastain's trading," his team argued. The platform got commissions when he bought and sold those featured NFTs. The Second Circuit seemed to buy this logic.

The jury instructions weren't great, it seems. Could've led to conviction just because he acted unethically with information that wasn't actually valuable to his employer.

This ruling shakes up the digital asset world! It clarifies some fuzzy areas about property rights in confidential information. NFT marketplaces are changing policies now. More guidelines for employees who want to trade.

Chastain was initially hit with three months in prison plus a $50,000 fine back in 2024. Now his appeal victory might reshape how we think about the NFT landscape.

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