- Two former Robinhood engineers were charged with fraud for allegedly trading on confidential insider information about token listings.
- Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang each profited more than $50,000 by purchasing perpetual futures on Hyperliquid ahead of public announcements.
- HOOD stock fell over 3% after the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate in a 50-49 procedural vote.
Two former Robinhood Markets Inc. engineers were charged with fraud for allegedly using confidential insider information to trade cryptocurrency-linked perpetual futures, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York. Hefu Chai, 36, and Huaisong Xiang, 30, allegedly purchased perpetual futures tokens on Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange, between 2025 and 2026 ahead of the company’s public announcements that the underlying tokens would be listed on Robinhood Crypto.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald and FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. charged each with one count of violating the Commodity Exchange Act. The pair allegedly each profited more than $50,000 from their illicit trading, as per the statement.
“Misappropriating confidential information to trade in the derivatives markets for personal benefit is illegal,” McDonald said. “That is exactly what we allege Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang have done.”
Rohit Chauhan, researcher at The Coin Bureau, noted the charges in a post on X, stating the allegations do not pertain to tokenized launches on the Robinhood Chain but were “not a good look” for the company.
Meanwhile, HOOD stock fell more than 3% at close on Tuesday and continued declining overnight after the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate. The bill fell short of the 60 votes needed in a 50-49 procedural vote, with four Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around HOOD stock was ‘bearish’ at the time of writing, with message volume up 71%. The stock has fallen more than 4% so far in 2026.
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