Coco, a new crypto casino inspired by the Milady NFT project, has made a cracking debut on the Ethereum blockchain. According to etherscan data, the platform's native token (COCO) has surged to 8 cents, giving it a market capitalization of $8.8 million. The casino has already hit $36 million in transaction volume in the first 12 hours after its release. nnThe platform features a slot machine focused on popular memecoins pepe (PEPE) and dogecoin (DOGE), as well as three traditional casino table games in blackjack, baccarat, and casino hold'em. Coco brands itself as 'provably fair,' using the SHA256 algorithm to ensure that each game is tamper-proof. nnThe success of Coco has also had an impact on other crypto casinos, with Rollbit's native token (RLB) rising to 7 cents from 2 cents. The stable market this month has led to increased traction for crypto casinos like Rollbit and Coco. nnHowever, VanEck CEO Gabor Gurbacs does not think that Bitcoin ETFs will be approved by the SEC in May. He believes that the 'dominant narrative' driving Bitcoin's 2024 rally is not the ETFs, but rather the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies and the growth of decentralized finance. nnMeanwhile, the supply of inactive Bitcoin for a year has dropped to an 18-month low, according to Glassnode. This could be a sign that the current Bitcoin rally may continue after the halving. nnIn other news, Eisenberg's $110 million fraud trial has opened, and the Foundation for the Study of Innovative Technologies (FSI) has called for consistency in stablecoin regulation. nnAs the wider crypto market continues to stagnate with a lack of volatility, crypto traders are frequently turning their attention to on-chain betting platforms like last week's phenomenon; hamster racing. The success of Coco and Rollbit suggests that crypto casinos may be the next big thing in the cryptocurrency space.The often-controversial tether (USDT) stablecoin emerged as the best bet for traders looking for a stable haven earlier this month following a series of banking troubles in the U.S. Stablecoin USD coin (USDC) fell under 90 cents on March 11 after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) revealed some of the industry’s major players had exposure to the bank. These players included U.S.-based stablecoin issuer Circle, which held a part of its USDC stablecoin’s cash reserves at Silicon Valley Bank as of Jan. 17, according to the firm's latest attestation. Decentralized stablecoins took a hit too, with frax and dai – both backed by a basket of tokens – falling by cents on their intended dollar pegs. Who is the boss? USDT held its fort, however, even trading at a premium in the following days. This came despite a long-held notion among some market participants about the token’s opaque asset backing and concerns about parent company Tether Global. Data further shows at least $5 billion of inflows into USDT in the past weeks, bringing its market capitalization to over $77 billion as of Wednesday. Part of that could likely be due to its supposedly low exposure to the U.S. banking system, some say. 'Tether has no exposure to SVB as its popularity lies more in the Asian region, meaning USDT doesn't rely on dollars being held in American banks, making it one of the safest stablecoins to pivot to currently,' said François Cluzeau, head of trading at Flowdesk, in a message to CoinDesk. 'We have seen a lot of USDC and DAI being traded for USDT, which has kept USDT liquid.' The systematic risks of USDC affected dai stablecoins, which further strengthens Tether’s thesis of holding a variety of assets to back its stablecoins, said Mitya Argunov, chief product officer at P2P.org. 'Tether’s performance during the crisis is largely due to its lack of direct exposure to SVB – it just didn’t have deposits there. Other major stablecoins like DAI were also indirectly exposed and depegged because they are actually largely collateralized by USDC,' Argunov said. 'However, the flight to [USDT] as a safe haven should also be seen as confidence in Tether’s portfolio risk management strategy – which minimizes duration risk, i.e., how SVB should have operated.' Still a need for caution Meanwhile, some developers continue to remain cautious for the long term. 'Looking at Tether's history, it has experienced FUD and redemption issues in the past and has been stable amidst current market turmoil,' said Danny Chong, co-founder of Tranchess, in a note to CoinDesk. '[USDT's] ability to maintain stability amid recent challenges suggests that it may have a chance at long-term success,' Chong said, adding that further stress tests would show if it remained 'resilient in the long run.' USDC also demonstrated the effectiveness and resilience of its hedging strategy through collaboration with its banking partners as it recovered its peg swiftly the following week, Chong said. Demand for stablecoins is undented, however. 'The swiftness of Circle’s USDC recovering its peg after their announcement of a recovery plan is further confirmation of how the market values the potential for stablecoin businesses,' Chong noted.South Korean traders are flocking to two lesser-known cryptocurrencies, Solar (SXP) and icon (ICX), driving up trading volumes and prices on local exchanges. According to CoinGecko data, the ICX-Korean won token pair saw over $420 million in trading volume on Upbit, a prominent South Korean exchange, while the SXP-won trading pair saw over $490 million in volume, more than either bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH) trading pairs. The surge in interest comes as Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, announced it will support a token migration of SXP in the coming days. ICX is popular in South Korea for its local roots and ability to be used for staking, network governance, and collateralization on decentralized-finance platforms. However, some of the volume may be attributable to wash trading, a manipulative technique in which traders continually buy and sell the same asset to drive up volume. South Korean crypto traders have a history of pushing euphoric rallies on tokens, known as the Kimchi Premium, which can result in prices trading as much as 30% above international prices. Last week saw a similar rally in XRP, with Upbit leading global XRP trading volumes with over $790 million worth of tokens traded over a 24-hour period. Despite the surge in interest, it's important to approach these figures with caution and do your own research before investing.