Robinhood engineers face up to 30 years over $50,000 alleged Hyperliquid profits

Two Robinhood engineers were charged with using confidential token-listing information to place profitable crypto derivatives trades on Hyperliquid.On Sept. 15, the Federal prosecutors accused Hefu Chai and Huaisong “Jerry” Xiang of trading perpetual futures tied to tokens they allegedly knew Robinhood Crypto planned to list, earning more than $50,000 each.These charges extend insider-information enforcement into a part of crypto markets where confidential information held at one company can be monetized through derivatives traded on a separate decentralized platform.Both men face one count of commodities fraud and one count of wire fraud. The charges carry statutory maximum sentences of 10 years and 20 years, respectively.Chai worked at Robinhood from about 2021 until May 2026 and served as a technical lead involved in new digital-asset listings, prosecutors said. Xiang worked as a software engineer from about 2024 through September 2026.Their positions allegedly gave them access to a private Slack channel containing upcoming listing plans. Both were designated “Coin Aware Individuals,” employees permitted to receive information about whether and when Robinhood Crypto would make n...