Today in Crypto: DOJ Charges Ex-OpenSea Employee in NFT Insider Trading Scheme; SEC Targets Crypto Investing With Ads

A former product manager at OpenSea has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering through a scheme to commit insider trading with NFTs, a press release from the Department of Justice says.

Nathaniel Chastain reportedly used confidential information on what NFTs would be used on OpenSea’s homepage for his own financial gain.

As that’s going on, bitcoin has closed down 6.9%, hitting $29,555.35 on Wednesday, Reuters writes.

That sees the coin losing $2,262.81 from its prior price, the report says.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency speculation is akin to other very risky ways of making money, according to a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission video, a Coindesk report says.

The investment choices are compared to a game show, with a voiceover on the video cautioning viewers to do research before making choices with their money.

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance, has closed a $500 million investment fund supported by several global institutional investors.

It plans to invest in projects to extend the use cases of cryptocurrency and drive Web3 and blockchain tech.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government will form a committee to oversee the digital assets market after Terra collapsed, Coindesk reports, called The Digital Assets Committee.

The committee will give criteria for listing coins by exchanges and will put in place investor protections measures. It will look at unfair trading too.

This comes after South Korea saw demands for oversight for the sector after UST’s collapse.

In other news, Thailand could be the next country working on a retail CBDC, with a pilot planned for later this year, Coindesk writes.

The trial will likely look at deposits, withdrawals and transfers.

Thailand had said previously that this will be an alternate payment method for “cashlike activities within a limited scale.”

In further crypto news, Germany has debuted new crypto guidelines, which will give companies applying for crypto licenses a way to register.

The information “does not claim to be complete,” the document says.

The document says companies will have to apply for a permit six months after starting activities.

Meanwhile, bitcoin miners are selling off mined tokens due to bitcoin’s price falling, Coindesk writes.

That has made it so profit margins are erased — and capital markets have been a lot less friendly.

Miner flows to exchanges have hit their highest point since January, the report says, with the practice being less profitable since bitcoin fell in price.