Robinhood Engineers Charged After Allegedly Trading Crypto on Secret Listing Information

Two engineers allegedly turned confidential Robinhood crypto listing plans into profitable Hyperliquid trades, according to newly unsealed complaints.

Two Robinhood engineers have been charged in the US over an alleged crypto trading scheme involving confidential company information.

The US Department of Justice said Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang allegedly used non-public information from Robinhood to trade crypto perpetual futures on Hyperliquid.

Trading on Confidential Data

According to complaints unsealed by the Southern District of New York, Chai and Xiang had access to information about upcoming cryptocurrency listings on Robinhood Crypto. Prosecutors allege that they used that information before the listings were announced to the public.

The two engineers allegedly bought perpetual futures linked to tokens that Robinhood was preparing to list. They traded on Hyperliquid before Robinhood made the listings public. The DOJ said both men repeatedly followed this pattern between 2025 and 2026. Each defendant allegedly made more than $50,000 from the trades.

The DOJ has charged both Chai and Xiang with commodities fraud and wire fraud. The commodities fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.