Thank you, can you elaborate a bit? Insider trading involves trading of a company's securities, correct? Because crypto isn't a security in the SEC's eyes, this doesn't apply?

How are they getting them on wire fraud charges? The texts back and forth describing the scheme?

The way I understand it, there is a lot of controversy over whether or not crypto is a security. However, Insider Trading is a type of Fraud, and proving fraud does not require it to be insider trading and does not require crypto to be a security. What makes it Wire Fraud is just that it took place "over the wire", ie on the internet.

I think the key to understanding how this is fraud is the fact that they acted on privileged Material Information to the disadvantage of their employer, not the exact nature of how they profited off it. Essentially, they stole company secrets.

I thought Hoeg's video on it was good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EafL0w48IAg