Robinhood Ex-Employees Charged with Crypto-Linked Trading Fraud

Two former employees of Robinhood Markets Inc., Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, have been charged by US prosecutors for allegedly using nonpublic information to trade crypto-linked perpetual futures on a decentralized derivatives exchange called Hyperliquid.

The engineers used confidential information related to whether and when additional cryptocurrencies would be supported by Robinhood to buy these contracts, according to Manhattan US Attorney Jamie McDonald's statement.

They made over $50,000 each from their trades, which is reportedly more than the average amount earned by a typical employee in the same position. The alleged scheme took place between 2025 and this year.