Two Robinhood engineers allegedly used insider knowledge of token listings to trade perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid, each profiting over $50,000

Odaily News: The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has charged Robinhood engineers Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang with allegedly using material non-public company information to front-run perpetual contracts for related tokens on Hyperliquid. Both face charges related to commodities fraud and wire fraud.

According to the complaint, between 2025 and 2026, the two had access to non-public information about cryptocurrencies that Robinhood Crypto was about to add support for due to their job responsibilities, and repeatedly bought perpetual contracts for the corresponding tokens on Hyperliquid before Robinhood officially announced the listings. Each of them profited more than $50,000 from the related trades. The two each face one charge of violating the Commodity Exchange Act and one charge of wire fraud, with maximum penalties of 10 years and 20 years in prison, respectively. Prosecutors emphasized that the charges have not yet been proven in court and that both defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.