Two Robinhood engineers have been accused by federal prosecutors of turning confidential company token-listing schedules into personal trading signals on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
According to federal authorities, engineers Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang repeatedly purchased perpetual futures ahead of upcoming token listings scheduled by Robinhood Crypto. Prosecutors state that the pair utilized their workplace access to view nonpublic information regarding which cryptocurrencies were about to be supported by the platform. By placing positions on Hyperliquid before public announcements were made, each engineer allegedly cleared more than $50,000 in profits.
Hyperliquid functions as a decentralized exchange allowing users to trade perpetual futures, which do not expire and enable speculation on asset prices without requiring direct ownership of the underlying tokens. Prosecutors allege that Chai and Xiang acquired material, nonpublic information internally at Robinhood and applied it to derivatives markets on a separate platform.
Chai, 36, and Xiang, 30, now face criminal charges. Each is facing one count of violating the Commodity Exchange Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, and one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
