The trading volumes of cryptocurrency derivatives have experienced a three-month growth streak for the first time since January 2022. These products include financial contracts like futures and options related to digital currencies.

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is making renewed efforts to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins, such as USDC and Tether. The efforts come after the collapse of FTX last year, with negotiations between political parties and the Biden administration having stalled prior to the midterm elections.

Data from Russian cybersecurity and antivirus provider Kaspersky has revealed that there was a 40% year-on-year spike in cryptocurrency phishing attacks in 2022. The number of detected crypto phishing attacks rose dramatically from 3,596,437 in 2021 to 5,040,520 in 2022.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Crypto Derivatives Trading Volume Rises for Third Consecutive Month
• New Bill Seeks to Regulate Stablecoins, Ban Unbacked Tokens
• Crypto Phishing Attacks Surged 40% in 2022
• DeFi’s Real World Assets Sector Keeps Growing

Crypto Derivatives Trading Volume Rises for Third Consecutive Month

The trading volumes of cryptocurrency derivatives have experienced a three-month growth streak for the first time since January 2022. These products include financial contracts like futures and options related to digital currencies.

CCData’s latest Outlook Report reveals that derivatives trading accounted for approximately 74% of the nearly $4 trillion crypto market volume in March. Although the majority of this trading occurred on centralized exchanges (CEX), decentralized exchanges (DEX) contributed $68.7 billion to the market.

As the potential of DEXs offering derivatives trading becomes increasingly clear, a growing trend has emeged with spot decentralized exchanges incorporating derivatives trading on their platforms, or partnering with other exchanges to do so.

PancakeSwap, for instance, has introduced derivatives trading in collaboration with Apollo Exchange. However, when compared to centralized crypto exchanges, the dominance of on-chain derivatives trading remains relatively low. In fact, the trading volume for derivatives on centralized exchanges is approximately 2.5 times greater than spot trading volume.

New Bill Seeks to Regulate Stablecoins, Ban Unbacked Tokens

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is making renewed efforts to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins, such as USDC and Tether. The efforts come after the collapse of FTX last year, with negotiations between political parties and the Biden administration having stalled prior to the midterm elections.

A new draft bill aims to put the Federal Reserve in charge of non-bank stablecoins, with the central bank responsible for approving and regulating issuers like Circle and Tether. The draft bill would also require companies looking to do business in the US required to register or face a $1 million fine.

The bill also proposes a two-year ban on new stablecoins without fiat backing, with the Treasury Department to lead a study on "endogenously backed" stablecoins. Existing tokens would be exempt from this ban

It would also see banking regulators and the National Institute of Standards and Technology be allowed to set standards for interoperability between stablecoins, which would help set standards for ease of use.

Crypto Phishing Attacks Surged 40% in 2022

Data from Russian cybersecurity and antivirus provider Kaspersky has revealed that there was a 40% year-on-year spike in cryptocurrency phishing attacks in 2022. The number of detected crypto phishing attacks rose dramatically from 3,596,437 in 2021 to 5,040,520 in 2022.

Phishing attacks typically involve bad actors reaching out to investors via fake websites and communication channels, which are designed to mimic their legitimate counterparts. Unwitting users are then prompted to divulge sensitive information, such as private keys, that grant attackers unauthorized access to their cryptocurrency wallets.

In a 2022 survey conducted by Kaspersky, one out of seven respondents confessed to having fallen victim to cryptocurrency phishing. While these attacks typically take the form of giveaway scams or fake wallet phishing pages, bad actors continue to develop increasingly sophisticated strategies.

DeFi’s Real World Assets Sector Keeps Growing

A burgeoning segment of DeFi, known as 'Real World Asset' protocols, seeks to tokenize traditional financial assets. Consulting firm BCG has projected that global illiquid assets could present a $16 trillion opportunity by 2030, with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink dubbing it the 'future of markets'.

Real World Asset lending protocols such as Centrifuge, Goldfinch, and Credix facilitate the transformation of tangible assets into digital assets.

These tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) can encompass investments in businesses, loans, and physical assets. Once tokenized, these assets can be seamlessly transferred and utilized across a wide range of DeFi offerings.

Dig deeper into the cryptocurrency world through CCData’s latest Outlook Report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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