Robinhood Engineers Charged Over Alleged Insider Trading in Cryptocurrency Listings
Two former Robinhood engineers have been charged by US prosecutors with commodities fraud and wire fraud for allegedly using confidential information about upcoming cryptocurrency listings to profit from perpetual futures trades on Hyperliquid.
Hefu Chai and Huaisong 'Jerry' Xiang, who worked at Robinhood between 2021 and 2026, had access to a private company Slack channel containing information about planned listings. They allegedly used this information to open long positions on Hyperliquid, closing them when the value of the tokens increased after their debut on Robinhood.
The allegations suggest that Chai and Xiang profited more than $50,000 from these trades between 2025 and 2026. The charges have parallels to the Coinbase insider-trading case in 2023, but extend the issue into decentralized derivative markets.