Robinhood Engineers Accused of Trading on Confidential Crypto Listing Info

Two former Robinhood engineers have been charged with commodities fraud and wire fraud for allegedly using confidential information to trade crypto assets on Hyperliquid before their listings became public. Hefu Chai, 36, and Huaisong 'Jerry' Xiang, 30, each earned more than $50,000 from the alleged trades in 2025 and 2026.

Chai worked as a technical lead for new digital-asset listings, while Xiang was a software engineer on the same process. They both had access to internal information about which assets Robinhood Crypto planned to support and when trading would begin.

The alleged trades involved perpetual futures on Hyperliquid for tokens including MEW, MOODENG, ASTER, and others. Chai allegedly used confidential listing dates to open long positions before the assets became tradable on Robinhood but after they were available on Hyperliquid.