OpenSea is the world’s first and largest digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Recently, the former product manager of the company was charged and arrested for wire fraud and money laundering concerning insider trading of NFTs. Moreover, in violation of the duties of trust and confidence the member owed to the company, the executive exploited his advanced knowledge of what NFTs would be featured on OpenSea’s homepage for his financial gain.

As a consequence, according to the Department of Justice, the executive is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, each of which carries a maximum imprisonment of 20 years. Additionally, the company introduced two new employee policies to control such cyber crimes Real Research launched a survey on the public opinion on the OpenSea executive charged in the first NFT insider trading case. Here are the results.

Highlights:

  • 69.74% own NFTs
  • 65.28% are aware of the OpenSea executive arrested in first NFT insider trading case
  • 52.28% are discouraged from wanting to buy NFTs

The Majority of Respondents Own NFTs

Percentage-of-respondents-that-own-NFTs
Figure 1: Percentage of respondents that own NFTs

The survey begins by asking the respondents if they own NFTs. The majority (69.74%) say ‘Yes’, 14.34% say ‘No’, and 15.93% say they don’t own any NFT but have plans to. Furthermore, the survey asks respondents about their awareness of the recent incident of an OpenSea executive arrested for an insider trading scheme of NFTs featured by OpenSea. In reply, 65.28% say they are very familiar with the case, 35.81% say they have heard of the case but are unsure about the details, and 17.40% are not.

On the subject of an OpenSea executive arrested with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, each count carrying at least 20 years of imprisonment, the survey asks the respondents about their feelings towards the charges. In response, 49.35% say ‘extremely fair’, 16.82% say ‘fair’, and 21.54% remain neutral. In contrast, 4.17% say ‘extremely unfair’ and 8.12% say ‘unfair’.

Similarly, the survey asks the respondents about their awareness of another recent incident – the popular NFT collection ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club’ was hacked in a phishing scam causing losses worth at least $380,000. Most (61.68%) of them choose ‘Yes, I am very familiar with the case’, 19.18% choose ‘Yes, I heard of the case but I am unsure about the details’, and the rest (19.14%) choose ‘No’.

52.28% Are Discouraged from Wanting to Buy NFTs

Percentage-of-respondents-discouraged-from-wanting-to-buy-NFTs
Figure 2: Percentage of respondents discouraged from wanting to buy NFTs

Additionally, regarding the OpenSea executive arrested for insider trading and several other similar scams, the survey asks the respondents for their opinion of what could be the biggest cause of these. 47.02% of them choose ‘lack of a centralized authority’, 16.88% choose ‘lack of awareness on NFT owners’ part’, and 10.91% choose ‘sufficient awareness about Blockchain, NFTs, and Cryptocurrency overall’. Moreover, 8.72% choose ‘lack of awareness in general’ and 8.44% choose ‘lack of security on the platform’.

Accordingly, the survey asks the respondents if these scams discourage them from wanting to buy NFTs. More than half (52.28%) say ‘definitely’, and 25.68% remain neutral. While 8.41% say ‘not really’ and 13.62% say they are unsure.

Respondents Agree With The New Employee Policies

two-new-employee-policies-on-OpenSea
Figure 3: Respondents’ judgment on the two new employee policies on OpenSea

With the OpenSea executive arrested and charged in the first NFT insider trading case, they also implemented two new employee policies. Hence, the survey asks the respondents if they agree with the policies that came into place. The majority (51.72%) choose ‘strongly agree’ and 17.83% choose ‘agree’. Meanwhile, 3.74% choose ‘strongly agree’ and 6.11% choose ‘disagree’. While 20.59% remain neutral.

Likewise, the survey asks for respondents’ opinions on whether they think that the intervention of regulations and regulatory bodies will resolve the issues of scams. In reply, 46.04% say ‘most definitely’ and 21.90% say ‘definitely’. Whereas, 10.18% say ‘not really’ and 21.88% are unsure about it.

Concluding, the survey asks how respondents felt about this incident. Correspondingly, 45.89% are angry, 14.15% are anxious, and 8.59% are disappointed. Meanwhile, 7.28% are second-guessing and 23.34% remain neutral.

Methodology

Survey TitlePublic Opinion on OpenSea Executive Arrested and Charged In First NFT Insider Trading Case
DurationJune 11 – June 18, 2022
Number of Participants50,000
DemographicsMales and females, aged 21 to 99
Participating Countries Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong) China (Macao), China (Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greanada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Maluritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar [Burma], Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.