A stylized illustration of a cylindrical cup with blue arrows and lines indicating a swirling or rotational motion inside the cup.
Briefs
 Finance
Free NewsletterPro Login

Warning: Undefined variable $stocks in /var/www/briefs.co/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/oxygen/component-framework/components/classes/code-block.class.php(133) : eval()'d code on line 448

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/briefs.co/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/oxygen/component-framework/components/classes/code-block.class.php(133) : eval()'d code on line 448

Warning: Undefined variable $funds in /var/www/briefs.co/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/oxygen/component-framework/components/classes/code-block.class.php(133) : eval()'d code on line 472

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /var/www/briefs.co/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/oxygen/component-framework/components/classes/code-block.class.php(133) : eval()'d code on line 472
/* the link was here */
Free Live Investor Workshop
The dollar is losing value. Here’s how investors can still profit. Click Here to Save Your Seat →
Free Live Investor Workshop
The dollar is losing value. Here’s how investors can still profit. Click Here to Save Your Seat →         

Former Robinhood Engineers Charged Over Alleged Crypto Insider Trades

Cierra Seay
Published Sep 15, 2026
[tts_player]
Share:
Summary:
  • U.S. prosecutors charged two former Robinhood Markets Inc. engineers, Hefu Chai, 36, and Huaisong Xiang, 30, with fraud.
  • They allegedly used confidential info about future crypto support at Robinhood to trade crypto-linked perpetual futures on Hyperliquid, making more than $50,000 each.
  • Robinhood said it "takes market integrity seriously and has zero tolerance for insider trading," and confirmed the pair no longer work at the company.

What prosecutors say happened

If you ever wondered whether a coming crypto listing can move markets, prosecutors think two ex-Robinhood engineers tried to front-run exactly that. A Tuesday statement from Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald alleges Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang used nonpublic details about whether and when Robinhood would support additional cryptocurrencies to buy crypto-linked perpetual futures on Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange. The government says each man cleared more than $50,000 from trades made between 2025 and 2026.

Legal proceedings and status

Chai, of Menlo Park, California, and Xiang, of Jersey City, New Jersey, were slated to appear in court on Tuesday in California and New York. The court allowed Xiang, a citizen of China, to be released on a $50,000 bond after rejecting a prosecutor's push to hold him without bail as a flight risk. Robert Stahl, Xiang's attorney, said his client disputes the allegations and intends to mount a vigorous defense in court.

Honoring your financial goals means staying vigilant and protecting what you have. Join Briefs Finance CEO Jaspreet Singh on September 29th for a FREE live investor workshop, How to Profit From A Dollar That's Losing its Value, where he shows how we're spotting investment opportunities as the dollar falls. Save your spot.

Company response and other details

In an email, a company representative said, "Robinhood takes market integrity seriously and has zero tolerance for insider trading." "We have robust insider-trading policies and procedures in place, including for new crypto listings. We immediately investigated and reported this matter to law enforcement and regulators, and will continue to cooperate with their investigations." The spokesperson also said the two no longer work for Robinhood. A LinkedIn inquiry to Chai seeking comment on the charges did not receive an immediate response.

A steady plan helps your savings weather uncertainty and grow with confidence. Our CEO Jaspreet Singh is hosting a FREE live investor workshop, How to Profit From A Dollar That's Losing its Value, on September 29th. Sign up free to join him live.

Disclosure

Recent News

1 2 3 … 77

Get Market Briefs delivered to your inbox every morning for free!

No fluff. No noise. No politics. Just finance news you can read in 5 minutes.

Blogs

September 15, 2026
Fiat Currency Runs on Trust, and the World Just Stopped Trusting the Dollar
By Nate Gregory
  • Gold has overtaken US treasuries as the world's top reserve asset, and central banks are now buying less US debt and more gold.
  • The US dollar is a fiat currency, meaning it's backed by a promise rather than gold, so it loses value when fewer countries want to hold it.
  • Whether the US economy or its national debt grows faster from here decides which assets stand to benefit next.
Read More
September 14, 2026
Why RAM Prices Are Soaring - and Where the Money Is Moving
By Cierra Seay
  • Memory chips - the RAM inside phones, laptops, fridges, and trucks - are in a shortage Tim Cook called a 100-year flood, and some memory prices have climbed about 90% in a single quarter.
  • Four forces hit at once: AI demand, a production shutdown in 2023, build times that push any fix to 2028 at the earliest, and a bombed helium plant in Qatar.
  • The last two supply shocks ended in aggressive Fed rate hikes and market drops of around 45% and 20%, and this time Washington is spending heavily to bring memory production home.
Read More
September 11, 2026
How Is the Economy Doing? Washington Says It's Fixed, but the Numbers Don't Agree
By Nate Gregory
  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the economy is fixed because lower earners' incomes are now rising faster than top earners'.
  • The Atlanta Fed and Bank of America show different numbers, and Hilton, Marriott, and McDonald's can't agree on what they're seeing either.
  • Whichever side is right, the economy is built to make investors rich, and inflation is how it does it.
Read More
September 10, 2026
US National Debt Hits $40 Trillion: Why the Economy Hasn't Collapsed Yet
By Nate Gregory
  • The US national debt crossed $40 trillion in 2026 and is growing faster than the economy. The debt to GDP ratio now sits at 125%, the highest outside the pandemic and higher than World War II.
  • On September 9, 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rolled out an emergency plan for the government to lend money to itself. Ray Dalio now says the dollar has roughly three years before real pain.
  • Empires rarely default. They debase. Since 1971, median household income grew about 8x while houses grew 17x and the S&P 500 grew 360x, so investors got richer while workers fell behind.
Read More
September 9, 2026
Your 401k Is Fueling the AI Bubble
By Andre Savage
  • About $10 trillion of 401k money sits in a $77 trillion stock market, mostly through target date funds and S&P 500 funds. Roughly 30% of every S&P 500 dollar lands in five AI-heavy tech stocks.
  • Four bubble signals run hotter today than before the 2000 crash: top-ten concentration, tech's share of the index, the Buffett Indicator, and how much of the market index funds own.
  • You only lock in an AI bubble loss if you sell. The 2022, 2020, 2008, and 2000 crashes were all buying windows for long-term investors, and the US-China AI race means government money could keep flowing in.
Read More
September 9, 2026
What Is Wealth Preservation? How To Protect Your Money From Anything
By Nate Gregory
  • Wealth preservation is an investing strategy built around keeping the money you've already made instead of chasing growth.
  • It leans on assets that hold steady when markets fall - gold, Treasury bonds, and companies that keep earning through wars, crashes, and pandemics.
  • The tradeoff is real: you give up some upside, and the two key numbers to check are maximum drawdown and correlation to the market.
Read More
September 8, 2026
Why Is Everything So Expensive? Why Prices May Never Come Back Down
By Cierra Seay
  • Official inflation is 3.4% and prices are up 32% since 2020, but rent (41%), gas (47%), car insurance (64%) and ground beef (79%) all outran the 28% median wage.
  • The Federal Reserve targets 2% inflation on purpose. Rising prices push extra dollars to investors and shrink the real cost of a $40 trillion national debt.
  • Investors who simply owned the S&P 500 gained about 150% over the same six years, and the Fed's September 16 decision will show whether it protects the dollar or the economy first.
Read More
September 7, 2026
The U.S. Housing Market Just Flipped: Renting a Home Now Beats Buying One
By Kalbir Talwar
  • The US is in a buyer's market in 41 of the 50 largest metro areas, but prices sit near record highs and mortgage rates are close to 7%.
  • The same median house costs 27% more than it did in 2021 while the monthly payment costs 90% more, and incomes rose a little more than 10%.
  • A 2008-style crash is not showing up in the data, so the pressure is landing on buyers instead of prices.
Read More
September 4, 2026
An Interest Rate Hike in 2026? The Fed Just Broke Its Own Script
By Nate Gregory
  • The Federal Reserve spent a year signaling cheaper money, and its new chairman just warned that an interest rate hike may be coming instead.
  • The Fed is stuck between high inflation and a weak job market, and fixing one makes the other worse.
  • Higher rates also reprice roughly a third of America's $40 trillion national debt this year, which is why Washington wants cuts so badly.
Read More
September 3, 2026
5 Passive Income Ideas That Pay You Whether You Work or Not
By Jackson Moreland
  • School teaches one formula: work, earn, spend. Stop working and the money stops, so the wheel never ends.
  • Five assets pay you without your labor - dividends, rent, interest, royalties, and the things you already own.
  • $80,000 a year of cash flow takes about $1 million invested at 8%, or roughly 20 years of $1,000 a month.
Read More
1 2 3 … 26
Share via
Facebook
X (Twitter)
LinkedIn
Mix
Pinterest
Bluesky
Tumblr
Skype
Buffer
Pocket
VKontakte
Parler
Xing
Reddit
Line
Flipboard
MySpace
Delicious
Amazon
Digg
Evernote
Blogger
LiveJournal
Baidu
MeWe
NewsVine
Yummly
Yahoo
WhatsApp
Viber
SMS
Telegram
Facebook Messenger
Like
Email
Print
Copy Link
Copy link
CopyCopied