In recent news, there has been a notable incident of alleged insider trading involving Rarible, which has been brought to the public's attention by the co-founders of AdLunam, Jason Fernandes and Nadja Bester.
These co-founders assert that despite successfully winning auctions for specific domains, including TOKENS.X intended for their company, AdLunam, they and several others were denied possession of the purchased domains. This situation has raised concerns about the integrity of the auction process on Rarible.
Unstoppable Domains, in response to these allegations, took to Twitter to highlight the use of "Bid Shielding" tactics, the failure of Rarible to close auctions on time, and the identification of an individual using the name "Gaunter O’Dimm" allegedly involved in these activities.
Nadja and Jason's frustration with the situation prompted them to create a video detailing their experiences and concerns on YouTube. They believe there are multiple instances of similar nature on Rarible involving Unstoppable Domains, suggesting a potential pattern of insider trading.
The AdLunam team also points out that certain auction winners did not have the highest bids, implying that there might be undue influence affecting the auction outcomes, which they suspect is indicative of insider trading. They further mention not receiving any email or notification from Rarible regarding their bids.
Nadja and Jason express their intention to investigate the matter further, although the exact nature of the alleged crimes and whether any members of the Rarible or Unstoppable Domains teams were involved without authorization remains unclear.
Nadja Bester and Jason Fernandes are the co-founders of AdLunam, a platform for user engagement and NFT earning within the Web3 investment ecosystem. Additionally, Nadja hosts an NFT-focused podcast.
Rarible and Unstoppable Domains have a history of collaboration, with Unstoppable Domains listing numerous domains on Rarible's platform for Ethereum. They also offer websites for sale through Polygon, listing millions of domains.
Rarible is a prominent NFT marketplace aggregator, while Unstoppable Domains specializes in providing crypto native domains without hosting fees, gas fees, or renewal fees.
Rarible, facing declining trading volumes due to market conditions, clarified in an email to Jason Fernandes that the seller (Unstoppable Domains) retains the right to not sell a domain to the highest bidder after an auction. This differs from typical auctions, where the highest bid must be accepted or an auction fee paid to cancel it.
Regarding the investigation, the bidding amounts for the domain TOKENS.X seem consistent, with Jason Fernandes' account appearing to win the bid at approximately $3329.
Unstoppable Domains has publicly criticized Rarible for alleged flaws in its auction mechanism, specifically pointing out an anomaly where an auction did not close despite no new bids for an extended period. They also highlighted instances of Bid Shielding tactics and the involvement of Gautier O’Dimm in auctions, suggesting a complex scheme aimed at manipulating auction outcomes.
The Voice of Crypto team is actively seeking further information by reaching out to Rarible and Unstoppable Domains, with updates expected in the future.