US charges ex-Robinhood engineers over alleged pre-listing crypto trades
US prosecutors charged two former Robinhood engineers, Hefu Chai and Huaisong “Jerry” Xiang, with commodities fraud and wire fraud for allegedly using confidential information about upcoming Robinhood Crypto listings to trade perpetual futures on Hyperliquid. The DOJ says both had access to a private Slack channel for “Coin Aware Individuals” containing planned listing dates and traded ahead of at least 10 announcements, allegedly making more than $50,000 each between 2025 and 2026. Robinhood’s policy barred them from trading on any platform within 24 hours of a listing or delisting announcement. The case extends insider-trading allegations into decentralized derivatives markets. Each defendant faces up to 10 years for the Commodity Exchange Act count and up to 20 years for wire fraud. The charges are allegations, and both remain presumed innocent.
