US charges ex-Robinhood engineers over alleged pre-listing crypto trades
The former employees allegedly earned more than $50,000 each by trading Hyperliquid perpetuals ahead of Robinhood token listings.
The former employees allegedly earned more than $50,000 each by trading Hyperliquid perpetuals ahead of Robinhood token listings.
US prosecutors on Tuesday charged two former Robinhood engineers with commodities fraud and wire fraud for allegedly using confidential information about upcoming cryptocurrency listings to profit from perpetual futures trades on Hyperliquid.
According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Hefu Chai and Huaisong “Jerry” Xiang bought perpetual contracts linked to tokens ahead of Robinhood Crypto listings. The DOJ alleged each profited more than $50,000 from the trades between 2025 and 2026.
According to the DOJ’s complaints, Chai worked at Robinhood from around 2021 until May 2026 and served as a technical lead responsible for new digital-asset listings. Xiang worked there from around 2024 until September 2026 as a software engineer involved in crypto listings.