Two Robinhood engineers, Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang, had access to a private Slack channel with upcoming token listing plans. Federal prosecutors allege they traded perpetual futures on Hyperliquid ahead of announcements — Chai before at least 10 listings, Xiang before 11 — each clearing over
$50,000.Their apparent logic: derivatives on a decentralized exchange sit outside normal enforcement. They don't. Both face fraud charges carrying up to 10 years. Robinhood says it reported the matter to law enforcement itself.
The precedent, per CoinDesk: onchain derivatives, insider information — still insider trading.