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Hefu Chai & Huaisong Xiang

avoid.net/hefu-chai-huaisong-xiang→5/100·72% conf.
[AI-DRAFTED · AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Auto-generated score, not yet verified against the scoring model. Under review — treat as indicative, not a verdict.

anchored·3HD9Vd…19R4

Summary

Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang are former Robinhood Crypto engineers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice on September 15, 2026 with commodities fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors allege they misappropriated confidential information from Robinhood's internal token-listing pipeline and used it to pre-position perpetual futures trades on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid between 2025 and 2026, with each defendant allegedly profiting more than $50,000. The charges are allegations only; no conviction or guilty plea has been entered as of the date of this investigation.

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□Hefu Chai & Huaisong Xiang
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    Timeline(6 events)

    1 January 2025

    Alleged scheme begins: prosecutors allege Chai and Xiang begin pre-positioning Hyperliquid perpetual futures ahead of Robinhood Crypto listing announcements using misappropriated confidential listing information.

    The Block

    15 January 2026

    Kaiko later identifies a wallet (0xa1EE...177D) opening a long position in Lighter (LIT) on Hyperliquid at 11:05 UTC, approximately one hour before Robinhood's LIT listing announcement at 12:12 UTC. Position closed at 13:00 UTC. Whether this wallet is linked to either charged defendant has not been confirmed in public sources.

    CoinTelegraph / Kaiko

    28 April 2026

    Kaiko-identified wallet opens a short position in HOOD perpetual futures on Hyperliquid at $81.99, hours before Robinhood's Q1 2026 earnings announcement. HOOD subsequently declined 11.3% following the earnings miss. This is a separate alleged incident; no charges connected to this trade have been publicly announced.

    Protos

    5 May 2026

    Kaiko publishes analysis flagging potential front-running ahead of multiple Robinhood listing announcements. Analyst Laurens Fraussen states the activity is consistent with either advance knowledge of listings or an exceptionally reliable front-running methodology based on public signals.

    Invezz / Kaiko

    15 May 2026

    CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange reportedly urge CFTC and lawmakers to scrutinize Hyperliquid over manipulation risks and sanctions-evasion concerns related to its anonymous perpetual futures trading.

    CoinDesk

    15 September 2026

    U.S. Department of Justice, SDNY, charges Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang with commodities fraud (max 10 years) and wire fraud (max 20 years) for alleged front-running of Robinhood Crypto listing announcements via Hyperliquid perpetual futures between 2025 and 2026. Each defendant alleged to have profited more than $50,000.

    The Block / Law360
    Provenance & Audit Trail
    Anchored on SolanaVerify on-chain9 Wayback Archives

    Decision Log

    This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 event). 9 of 12 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

    full audit log →version history →

    model: claude-sonnet-4-6

    generated: 9/15/2026, 11:04:58 PM

    last updated: 9/16/2026, 1:13:20 AM

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