Today in crypto, the CFTC’s Summer Mersinger said crypto perpetual futures could soon come to the US, lawmakers will amend the GENIUS Act to bar sitting presidents from profiting off stablecoins, and the decentralized exchange Cetus lost over $200 million in an exploit.
Crypto perp futures coming ‘very soon’ to US: CFTC’s Mersinger
Outgoing Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Summer Mersinger said on May 22 that the regulator could greenlight crypto perpetual futures contracts “very soon.”
“We’re seeing some applications, and I believe we’ll see some of those products trading live very soon,” she told Bloomberg TV, adding it would be “great to get that trading back onshore in the United States.”
Crypto perpetual futures are derivative contracts that allow traders to speculate, often with high leverage, on the price of a cryptocurrency without actually owning it and can be held indefinitely.
Mersinger, who will leave the CFTC at the end of May to join the crypto lobby group the Blockchain Association as CEO, said having crypto derivatives trading and regulated in the US would be a “really good thing for these markets and would be really beneficial to the industry broadly.”
Senators plan to amend GENIUS Act to address Trump family's stablecoin
Though a majority of members of the US Senate voted to advance a bill to regulate payment stablecoins on May 20, high-ranking Democrats are planning to propose an amendment to the legislation to address President Donald Trump’s connections to the cryptocurrency industry.
According to a May 22 Axios report, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley will file an amendment to the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, to block a US president from profiting from stablecoins. The proposed amendment would come after 18 Democrats sided with Republicans in the Senate in voting to advance the bill on May 20 after it failed a procedural vote on May 8.
“Passing the GENIUS Act without our anti-corruption amendment stamps a Congressional seal of approval on Trump selling access and influence to the highest bidder,” Merkley said in a May 22 X post.
Trump his three sons are involved in the crypto platform World Liberty Financial (WLFI), which launched its USD1 stablecoin in March. Critics have pointed out that the president could continue to personally benefit from legislation that helps recognize stablecoins like USD1 as financial instruments in the US.
Sui DEX Cetus hit by suspected hack: Over $200 million in potential losses
Cetus, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Sui blockchain, is suspected to have been hit by a massive exploit that may have drained more than $200 million worth of digital assets.
Pseudonymous Web3 researcher COMDARE3 posted on X that “users report” that Sui-based DEX Cetus is being exploited.” They also shared a screenshot of Cetus market data on DEX Screener, showing many assets losing well over half of their value over the last 24 hours.
The team behind Extractor, an onchain monitoring tool developed by crypto cybersecurity company Hacken, confirmed that “at least $63m was already bridged to Ethereum, 20k ETH was just transferred to a fresh wallet” in a single transaction. A Hacken representative told Coinpectra that these findings were confirmed by the company’s Web3 researcher, Yehor Rudytsia.
Cetus pool data shows that as of the time of writing, the DEX processed $2.9 billion worth of transactions on May 22, a significant increase over the $320 million reported on May 21. This heightened level of activity may have been caused by funds being siphoned out of the protocol.
Cetus did not immediately respond to Coinpectra’s request for comments about the suspected exploit. A Sui team representative gave no comment to Coinpectra regarding the Cetus situation.
Some tokens, such as Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) or AXOLcoin (AXOL) lost most of their value on Cetus. The top 15 losers all lost in excess of three-quarters of their price.
