The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which supervises derivatives markets in the United States, has paid out $16 million to whistleblowers this year, with crypto accounting for the majority of the 1,530 tips, according to Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero on Tuesday.

“The majority of tips received this year involved cryptocurrency – an area that continues to have pervasive fraud and other illegality,” Romero said in a statement posted on the CFTC website. “With the rise of crypto, more retail customers have come under the CFTC’s jurisdiction, making even more critical the efforts of the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program and the Office of Customer Education and Outreach.”

Whistleblowers help in the detection and interpretation of fraud and other criminal activity, according to Romero. “The faster we can stop fraud, the more we can protect customers from harm.”

“More than $15 million was paid to two whistleblowers who provided significant information and assistance that led the CFTC to bring separate successful enforcement cases,” Goldsmith Romero said.

According to her, the CFTC has awarded $350 million to whistleblowers, resulting in more than $3 billion in enforcement sanctions.