On September 15, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice charged two former Robinhood engineers, Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, with insider trading. Between 2025 and 2026, they allegedly exploited confidential information about upcoming crypto listings to trade perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid, generating over $50,000 in profits each. Blockchain analytics firm Kaiko had identified a suspicious wallet that systematically anticipated Robinhood’s major announcements. On January 15, 2026, this wallet opened a long position on LIT perpetual contracts just over an hour before Robinhood announced the listing and closed the position at a profit less than an hour after the announcement. They face charges of commodity fraud (up to 10 years in prison) and wire fraud (up to 20 years in prison).
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