Open interest in perpetual futures markets and onchain trading patterns suggests some investors may have taken a position ahead of Robinhood’s cryptocurrency listing announcements, according to a Monday report from analytics provider Kaiko.
One of the clearest examples was the wallet address “0xa1E”, which stands for Kaiko he said opened a long position on Lighter (LIT) on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid on January 15 at 11:05 UTC, approximately one hour before Robinhood announced the token’s listing at 12:12. The portfolio closed its position at 1:00 p.m., shortly after the announcement.
At the same address, Kaiko said he later opened a compact position in a HOOD-related perpetual contract on April 28, hours before Robinhood reported first-quarter revenue that topped analyst expectations. The trader closed his compact position later that day after HOOD dropped.
The trading patterns raise questions about whether some market participants had access to nonpublic trading information or developed a reliable method to detect public signals ahead of the announcements. Kaiko also found that sophisticated investors may have responded to spikes in funding rates, increases in volumes and changes in open interest rather than to insider information.
Many other wallets made similar moves just before the offering went public, raising the question of whether “more than one participant had access to the same information before the announcement,” wrote Laurens Fraussen, a research analyst at Kaiko.
LIT trading price, quotation time, minute by minute. source: Kaiko
Hyperliquidity data indicates unusual pre-listing trading
Kaiko pointed to numerous cryptocurrency quotes that led to an boost in open interest and funding rates just prior to Robinhood’s public listing announcement, including Zcash (ZEC), Synthetix (SNX), and Near Protocol (NEAR) tokens, among others.
Hourly price changes ahead of Robinhood’s quote announcement for LIT, SNX, and ZEC. source: Kaiko
The report explained that all three tokens experienced price drift prior to the announcement, with each coin achieving average returns in the hours leading up to and after the auction announcement.
Related: Crypto VC funding dropped to $659 million in April, the lowest level in two years
While fresh data is emerging on signs of potential insider activity, it may also indicate that some of the smartest traders are positioning themselves based on funding or volume growth, Kaiko’s Fraussen told Cointelegraph.
“Traders who know how the microstructure works could see funding spikes, volume increases and open interest spikes, as well as positioning on that basis.”
Still, derivatives metrics show that this type of positioning was statistically consistent and repeated across multiple asset quotations, reflecting either “privileged access to Robinhood’s list of companies” or “an exceptionally reliable, leading-edge public signals methodology.”
