The US Department of Justice has charged two Robinhood employees with insider trading after they allegedly used confidential info about upcoming token listings to front-run futures trades on Hyperliquid.

The Charges

Prosecutors say Hefu Chai and Huaisun Xiang had access to private details about future Robinhood listings and used that to open futures positions on Hyperliquid ahead of the news. Each allegedly made over $50,000 from the scheme.

Counts and Possible Sentences

Both are facing charges of commodities fraud and wire fraud. According to the official DOJ press release, the maximum penalties are up to 10 years for commodities fraud and up to 20 years for wire fraud.