The charges against Chastain, announced last June, were the first in a series of high-profile cases related to digital assets launched by Williams' office last year. The case could have broader implications for assets that do not fit in to existing regulations preventing investment advisers, brokers and others from trading on material nonpublic information, legal experts have said. Chastain had pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, David Miller, said following the verdict that the legal team would "evaluate our options."
"We respect the jury process. We respectfully disagree with
their decision," Miller told reporters.
Chastain's lawyers argued that OpenSea, the world's largest
NFT marketplace, did not treat knowledge of what NFTs would be
featured on its home page as confidential information when
Chastain worked at the company.
"You can't hold Nate to a standard that didn't exist," his
lawyer Daniel Filor told jurors in his closing argument on
Monday. "Nobody told Nate that he couldn't use or share that
information."
Prosecutor Allison Nichols said Chastain used anonymous
OpenSea accounts to make the illegal trades, showing he knew
that what he was doing was wrong.
"He hid what he was doing," Nichols told the jury in her
rebuttal argument. "He knew that he had violated OpenSea's
confidentiality agreement."
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, who presided over the
trial, set Chastain's sentencing date for Aug. 22.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
