Did Opensea executive pull off $60 million crypto scam?

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Last Updated on 6 November 2023 by CryptoTips.eu

OpenSea, the best-known and (usually) most reliable platform for NFT (Non Fungible Tokens) tokens, is in the midst of a new scandal. According to various profiles on Reddit, a former director of the company named Kevin Pawlak is guilty of a crypto scam worth around $60 million.

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NFT market place

OpenSea was conceived and founded in 2017 by the duo Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer. The Americans quickly managed to put the platform on the map and welcomed their first users in no time. A short time after launch, a massive $23 million was invested in the platform by venture capitalist investors, allowing OpenSea to continue to grow at a rapid pace.

OpenSea quickly grew into the best-known NFT marketplace in the world.

In 2021, also due to a song on the popular American program Saturday Night Live, the popularity of NFTs exploded and OpenSea did fabulous business, sometimes selling many million dollars worth of NFTs per day.

Ever since the crypto crisis of 2022, when the price of Bitcoin fell sharply and the prices of NFTs also plummeted, scandals surrounding NFT platforms have however piled up.

Front running

One of the most popular scams involved a staff member purchasing an NFT themselves and then presenting it directly on the platform’s homepage, thus influencing the price. The technique became known as Front Running and former OpenSea employee Nate Chastain was already accused of it in 2021.

OpenSea promised improvement but it has now happened again.

The latest person to be accused of this technique is Kevin Pawlak, the former Head of Ventures of OpenSea. According to the NFTEthics account, he ‘stole’ around $60 million in this way.

OpenSea responded very briefly to the allegation, saying:

“Kevin is a former employee who left the company in June 2023. He had a limited scope while at OpenSea — where he worked in a non-management position. We have no awareness of his involvement with the projects in question.”

To be continued no doubt.

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]
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