This week’s Web 3.0 Woundup sees Nathaniel Chastain found guilty of insider trading on Opensea, Sotheby’s taking on the NFT giants at their own game, and Avalanche working with Alibaba Cloud on a metaverse offering.
Chop chop, no time to waste.
Nathaniel Chastain Found Guilty of Insider Trading
Former Opensea employee Nathaniel Chastain was this week found guilty of insider trading and will now face a prison sentence. Chastain was accused of buying up NFTs from collections that were about to be splashed all over the exchange’s front page and selling them for a profit when they did, using his knowledge of these upcoming collections to commit his fraud.
Chastain is said to have made more than $50,000 in illegal profit, with his argument that the information he used to make the sales wasn’t confidential falling on deaf ears.
Sotheby’s Announces Proprietary NFT Marketplace
Fine art broker Sotheby’s this week unveiled an on-chain NFT marketplace to rival the likes of Blur and Opensea. Named Sotheby’s Metaverse, the marketplace will start with support for Ethereum and Polygon networks which Sotheby’s said are the most popular platforms for digital artists, adding that the NFT trading avenue will be integrated into the auction house’s metaverse platform.
Sotheby’s revealed that the marketplace will honor creator royalties which will be automatically deposited to an artist’s wallet.
Alibaba Partners with Avalanche to Build Metaverse Launchpad
Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence unit of Alibaba Group, this week joined forces with layer-1 blockchain Avalanche to offer its clients the Cloudverse launchpad. The launchpad will assist companies in customizing, launching, and managing their own metaverse spaces on Avalanche’s blockchain.
This collaboration has the potential to unlock opportunities for businesses that lack the time or resources to develop these platforms but want to participate in this area. As a result, the ability to launch metaverse platforms quickly and easily could provide access to a new wave of opportunities for enterprises.
