The US Department of Justice has charged two former Robinhood engineers, Hefu Chai and Huaisong Jerry Xiang, with commodities fraud and wire fraud. They allegedly used confidential information about upcoming cryptocurrency listings to profit from perpetual futures trades on Hyperliquid, each earning more than $50,000 between 2025 and 2026. Prosecutors allege they had access to a private Slack channel containing planned listing dates, allowing them to open long positions ahead of announcements. Chai allegedly traded perpetuals ahead of at least 10 announcements including tokens like MEW, MOODENG, HYPE and ENA, while Xiang first traded POPCAT perpetuals in March 2025 before trading ahead of at least 10 other listings. If convicted, each defendant faces up to 10 years for violating the Commodity Exchange Act and 20 years for wire fraud.
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