Federal prosecutors in the United States accused the engineers Hefu Chai and Huaisong “Jerry” Xiang, of Robinhood, of using confidential information about future cryptocurrency listings to trade ahead on Hyperliquid. The charges were announced on Tuesday (15) by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
According to investigators, the two had access, because of their roles, to internal information about which assets would be added to Robinhood Crypto and when trading would begin. They allegedly used that data to open long positions in perpetual contracts before public announcements.
The indictment alleges that each obtained more than US$ 50,000 in profits. Chai allegedly traded ahead on at least ten occasions between 2025 and January 2026, while Xiang also allegedly traded repeatedly based on information that had not yet been disclosed.
Employees had restricted access to future listings
Future listings were discussed in a private Slack channel accessible to employees classified by Robinhood as “Coin Aware Individuals.” The company's internal policy prohibited those employees from trading assets related to material nonpublic information.
Among the assets cited in the charges are MEW, MOODENG, ASTER, XPL, ENA, AERO, SYRUP, POPCAT and HYPE, the token of Hyperliquid itself.
Chai and Xiang were charged with commodities fraud and wire fraud. The maximum penalties are ten and 20 years in prison, respectively, although any sentence depends on how the case proceeds.
Robinhood said it cooperated with the investigation and stated that it reported the case to the authorities after an internal review. The charges do not yet represent convictions.
