The former product manager of the OpenSea platform knew which of the NFT collections would be advertised on the home page of this site. And was buying them up in advance for resale

Prosecutors have won the first ever U.S. insider trading lawsuit involving digital assets. A former employee of NFT marketplace OpenSea has now been found guilty of using confidential information to make a profit.

A jury found former platform product manager Nathaniel Chastain guilty of fraud and money laundering. In contrast, insider trading litigation centered on securities fraud charges. Then Chastain was charged with wire fraud. This allowed prosecutors to sidestep the issue of classifying NFTs as an asset, not yet spelled out in the law.

Chastain, 32, was responsible for selecting the NFT section of Trending. These are the images that were posted on the front page of OpenSea’s home page. Getting NFTs into that section of the site usually resulted in an immediate jump in their price. According to the charge, OpenSea kept information about the NFT collections secret. Which were chosen to be displayed on the home page. But Chastain, in possession of this information, bought up dozens of the right images in advance. And when he published them in the Trending section, he immediately sold them at several times the purchase price, violating the confidentiality agreement.

The prosecution alleges that Chastain profited over $57,000 in ETH cryptocurrency from the scheme. The defendant himself claims that he never converted the proceeds into dollars. Consequently, he made no profit.

In September 2021, Chastain was asked to resign after his activities became visible both internally. And to outside observers in the crypto community. Who analyzed sales and tracked wallet transfers at the expense of blockchain transparency. The company then introduced a policy prohibiting employees from buying or selling NFTs. As long as they are displayed on the home page of the site.

Our experts note that Chastain was arrested in June 2022. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count. Although he will likely end up with a much lesser sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for August 22.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump released a new series of 47 thousand tokens, it was sold out within 24 hours

Sales of the first NFT collection of Donald Trump rose 860% after the launch of the second series of tokens. According to the Cryptoslam platform, secondary sales of items from the first issue of Trump Digital Trading Cards totaled $384,000 per day. During the week before the announcement of the new batch of NFTs, sales were $20,000 to $40,000 per day.

Also sales of the second series of NFTs featuring the former U.S. president began April 18. He appears on them as Elvis Presley, the chess king, in company with a fire lion and in other flamboyant images.

The new collection includes 47,000 NFTs – 2,000 more than the first issue. Buyers of the 47 tokens got a chance to be a guest at a dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The number 47 could be a hint at his intention to become the 47th president of the United States.

The initial cost of the “cards” remained the same – $99. However, as stated on the site, all tokens have already been sold out.

Our experts note that the first collection of 45 thousand NFT on the blockchain Polygon Trump released last December. There were 44 thousand tokens for sale. All NFTs were sold out in the first 24 hours. And initial sales brought the project nearly $4.4 million.

Despite an increase in sales of NFTs from the first collection, the minimum price for them on the largest NFT-marketplace OpenSea fell by 64% overnight. On April 19, it stands at 0.1396 ETH ($279), almost three times the initial price of NFT.

NFT collection from Warner Bros. Discover was sold on the first day of trading for more than half a million dollars. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

The NFT collection, collectively titled Game of Thrones: Build Your Realm, was based on the Game of Thrones series. It was sold out on the Nifty Marketplace within the first seven hours of the start of trading. The tokens, presented by media giant Warner Bros. Discover, went on sale the evening of Jan. 10 for $150 each.

Each NFT is a “box” with an avatar of a character from the series. And which can be used in virtual world created based on the work. Also, the NFT includes additional attributes for “boosting” heroes. After purchase, the “box” can be opened or left unopened to save, trade or sell it intact.

During presale, 3.45k NFTs became available with a limit of one token per Nifty account. Then another 1,500 NFTs went on public sale a few hours later, with a limit of two additional items per account. Fifty NFT were retained by project authors for further events, free giveaways, and other promotional purposes.

The total amount of sales of NFT from this collection from the beginning of trading was $564 thousand according to the analytical platform CryptoSlam. Only two tokens were resold more expensive than the original price: for $200 and for $176. The current minimum token price (floor price) is 0.061 ETH.

Daily futures trading volume on DeFi platforms reached $5 billion. This is the biggest amount since Terra collapsed in May of this year. Crypto-Upvotes expert review.

DeFi platforms increased revenues amid the outflow of funds from centralized exchanges that occurred due to the collapse of FTX. On-chain data showed an increase in activity on decentralized futures trading platforms and an increase in revenue for DeFi protocols, Cointelegraph reported.

However, not all decentralized applications (DApps) and protocols show such a trend. Because some of them have financial ties to FTX and Alameda. But data on DeFi projects’ revenues show that at least three protocols have exceeded $1 million in the last seven days, including Ethereum and OpenSea Marketplace.

Decentralized futures trading platforms have increased their trading volumes to record levels. Their daily turnover reached $5 billion, the highest since the Terra token crash in May of this year.

Despite the increase in trading volume, the total value of locked-in assets (TVL) at DeFi only increased at seven networks. Gains Network, a futures trading platform on the Polygon network, showed the biggest increase. Its TVL increased 17.3% over the week. And inter-network protocol Ren saw its TVL drop by 50%. This is because Ren worked closely with Alameda. And received quarterly funding and stored its funds directly on FTX.

Blockchain’s profit growth comes on top of an unchanged number of daily active users. Compared to previous weeks, the daily profits of leading blockchains have increased by more than 300%. This suggests that transactions among existing users are occurring more frequently.

Despite growth in profits, only Ethereum made profits among PoS-based blockchains. Other leading networks such as Polygon, BNB Smart Chain and Optimism did not profit. Holders of these tokens suffered inflationary losses.