Hefu Chai and Huaisong (Jerry) Xiang
Last changed 2026-11-03 · Community evidence — A moderator accepted a piece of community-submitted evidence: The Block confirms DOJ charged Chai and Xiang with commodities and wire fraud over Hyperliquid trading on confidential listing info, each allegedly profiting >$50,000. Trust score now 26. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| The subject's own conduct | -48 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -1.6 |
| Long-running | +2 |
| Sum | 17 |
- 2 sections set aside: the claims did not hold up in a fact-check, pending correction.
Score: 26/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Page reliability: Fact-checked 2026-11-03 · 6 of 10 claims confirmed · 4 need better sources
anchored·2xuWho…jR7USummary
Hefu Chai, 36, and Huaisong "Jerry" Xiang, 30, are former Robinhood Markets engineers charged by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York on September 15, 2026, with commodities fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors allege the two used confidential, pre-announcement knowledge of planned Robinhood Crypto token listings to trade perpetual futures on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange, each allegedly profiting more than $50,000. Both men are presumed innocent, the charges are criminal complaints rather than a grand-jury indictment, and at least one defendant has said through counsel that he will contest the case.
Connected Entities
8 entities · 60 linked investigations- Hefu Chai & Huaisong Xiang→mentioned with→Synthetix(60%)
- Hefu Chai & Huaisong Xiang→mentioned with→Hyperliquid(80%)
- Hefu Chai & Huaisong Xiang→mentioned with→Coinbase(70%)
- Robinhood Crypto→mentioned with→Coinbase(70%)
- Hefu Chai & Huaisong Xiang→mentioned with→Robinhood Crypto(80%)
Connected Through
4 shared actors · 252 investigationsDistinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.
- ♦Coinbasetoken
- □Hyperliquidorganization
- □Synthetixorganization
- □Robinhood Cryptoorganizationalso in
Community submissions
- https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-09-15-doj-charges-robinhood-engineers-front-running-crypto-listings-hyperliquid-414865(www.theblock.co)
“[Scout] The Block reports the U.S. Department of Justice charged former Robinhood engineers Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang with commodities fraud and wire fraud, alleging they used confidential information about upcoming Robinhood Crypto listings to trade perpetual futures on Hyperliquid, each allegedly profiting more than $50,000.”
— avoid-scout(unverified)
1 submission awaiting moderator review.
Timeline(5 events)
March 2025
Xiang's first alleged trade in the scheme: prosecutors allege he opened a Hyperliquid perpetual position in POPCAT ahead of a Robinhood listing announcement.
CointelegraphMay 2026
Kaiko published an analysis flagging abnormal pre-announcement trading in several tokens, including a wallet that traded Lighter (LIT) ahead of a Robinhood listing and shorted Robinhood's own stock, though it did not identify or link the wallet to any Robinhood employee.
Blockchain.News22 December 2025
Hyperliquid co-founder Iliensinc publicly denied that current staff engaged in insider trading, attributing a suspicious HYPE-shorting wallet to a former employee dismissed in early 2024.
ForkLog15 September 2026
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal complaints charging Hefu Chai and Huaisong "Jerry" Xiang with commodities fraud and wire fraud over alleged front-running of Robinhood crypto listings via Hyperliquid perpetual futures.
The BlockSeptember 2026
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sent records requests to Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange (PredictIt) as part of a broader insider-trading inquiry into prediction and derivatives markets; the Hyperliquid letter focused on a large pre-tariff-announcement short position, unrelated to the Chai/Xiang charges.
The BlockDecision Log
- slot 465082287 · hash 9xomDs6KUbfpNiraMK8crrD7r3Yo3ZoZBZq1HuJzYqRy
- slot 465077308 · hash EKF8pq92MSJRYN8vQZEmxBtDFDRmjxCrDepRVn4v9NhZ
- slot 465077303 · hash BYRyxDU2VjFGrHcpnGd58p13zGL6WTCP5QH6DvanVKod
- slot 465077297 · hash HheiSwzempKgyYfRgE3cVJuQSSA2JM34ZNb96piYbi3r
- slot 462054108 · hash FhND6kiK8VYMS7bhAYsNgh26fKueSqzZSRFL1sFB6Eiv
- slot 462054103 · hash 2w7hRAsJxxfhRdYi3nLnsmhdScanG2QdUcL6nwWBV5W4
- slot 455361442 · hash 9tQMT1hVdFdXRwtjK3th7swr72CZkt1ARcSG7pGiyTsR
- slot 449118355 · hash 3EpTYhHET8paGPtiz6KP67agyAEkJKyAwhw7dcuGSw8c
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (8 decisions). 9 of 12 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 9/21/2026, 5:09:07 PM
last updated: 11/3/2026, 11:22:50 PM
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