OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, acquired NFT aggregator Gem to “better serve” its more experienced users, the company said in a blog post. The deal, which comes a few months after OpenSea bought DeFi wallet startup Dharma Labs, will allow OpenSea to “learn from Gem’s expertise and intuition about the advanced NFT community,” the company said.
The news comes a week after Gem removed Josh Thompson, a core developer and primary shareholder at the company, from its team over allegations from several individuals that Thomson had engaged in rape, sexual harassment, and the grooming of minors, as BuzzFeed News first reported. It is unclear whether Thompson, who went by the pseudonym Neso, was still a shareholder in Gem’s Singapore-incorporated parent company prior to the OpenSea transaction.
“During the course of our diligence, we learned about, and immediately surfaced, some deeply concerning allegations against a now-former member of Gem’s leadership team who operated under the pseudonym Neso. Upon investigating the allegations, the employee was immediately exited prior to the close of this deal. This individual has never and will never be affili …
