A fast-tracked temporary crypto regulatory framework could bolster innovation within the US crypto industry while permanent regulations are still in the works, says acting US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Mark Uyeda.

“A time-limited, conditional exemptive relief framework for registrants and non-registrants could allow for greater innovation with blockchain technology within the United States in the near term,” Uyeda said at the SEC’s April 11 Crypto Task Force roundtable titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading.”

Relief measures may address immediate challenges

Uyeda said this might be the short-term answer as the SEC works toward a “long-term solution,” speaking at the roundtable event with agency members and crypto industry executives, including Uniswap Labs’ Katherine Minarik, Cumberland DRW’s Chelsea Pizzola, and Coinbase’s Gregory Tusar.

He flagged state-by-state regulation of crypto trading as a concern, warning it could lead to a “patchwork of state licensing regimes.”

Uyeda said that a favorable federal regulatory framework would ease the burden for market participants wishing to offer tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets, allowing them to operate under a single SEC license instead of navigating “fifty different state licenses.”

He urged crypto market participants to share feedback on areas where “exemptive relief” could be appropriate.

Source: US Securities and Exchange Commission

Uyeda also reiterated the benefits of blockchain technology in financial markets during the roundtable discussion.  “Blockchain technology offers the potential to execute and clear securities transactions in ways that may be more efficient and reliable than current processes,” Uyeda said.

Uyeda to fill chair position until Atkins is sworn in

“Blockchains can be used to manage and mobilize collateral in tokenized form to increase capital efficiency and liquidity,” he added.

Uyeda will continue serving as acting SEC chair until US President Donald Trump’s nominee, Paul Atkins, is officially sworn in.

On April 10, the US Senate confirmed Atkins as chair of the SEC in a 52-44 vote largely along party lines. 

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Uyeda has served as acting SEC chair since Jan. 20, succeeding former chair and crypto skeptic Gary Gensler. He’s been widely seen within the industry as a pro-crypto advocate.

On March 18, Cointelegraph reported that Uyea said the SEC could change or scrap a rule proposed under the Biden administration that would tighten crypto custody standards for investment advisers.

“I have asked the SEC staff to work closely with the crypto task force to consider appropriate alternatives, including its withdrawal,” Uyeda said.

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Draft legislation in the US Senate threatens to hit data centers serving blockchain networks and artificial intelligence models with fees if they exceed federal emissions targets, according to an April 11 Bloomberg report. 

Led by Senate Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, the draft bill purportedly aims to address environmental impacts from rising energy demand and protect households from higher energy bills, Bloomberg said.

Dubbed the Clean Cloud Act, the legislation mandates that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set an emissions performance standard for data centers and crypto mining facilities with over 100 KW of installed IT nameplate power.

The standard would be based on regional grid emissions intensities, with an 11% annual reduction target. The legislation also includes penalties for emissions exceeding the set standard, starting at $20 per ton of CO2e, with the penalty increasing annually by inflation plus an additional $10.

“Surging power demand from cryptominers and data centers is outpacing the growth of carbon-free electricity,” notes a minority blog post on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works website, adding that data centers’ electricity usage is projected to account for up to 12% of the US total power demand by 2028.

According to research from Morgan Stanley, the rapid growth of data centers is projected to generate approximately 2.5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions globally by the end of the decade.

For Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of research, the proposed legislation effectively seeks to single out Bitcoin (BTC) miners and similar operations for energy consumption in a “Losing ‘Blame the Server Racks’ Strategy,” he said in an April 11 X post. 

In addition, the law could clash with the US’s policy under President Donald Trump, who repealed a 2023 executive order by former President Joe Biden setting AI safety standards. Trump has previously declared his intention to make the US the “world capital” of AI and cryptocurrency.

New US draft bill would penalize AI, crypto data centers for power consumption. Source: Matthew Sigel

Related: Trade tensions to speed institutional crypto adoption — Execs

Bitcoin and AI converge

The draft law, which has yet to pass in the Senate, comes as Bitcoin miners — including Galaxy, CoreScientific, and Terawulf — increasingly pivot toward supplying high-performance computing (HPC) power for AI models, VanEck said.

Bitcoin miners have struggled in 2025 as declining cryptocurrency prices weigh on business models already impacted by the Bitcoin network’s most recent halving.

Miners are “diversifying into AI data-center hosting as a way to expand revenue and repurpose existing infrastructure for high-performance computing,” Coin Metrics said.

Comparison of miners’ AI-related contracts. Source: VanEck

According to Coin Metrics, miners’ incomes began to stabilize in the first quarter of 2025. However, the recovery could be cut short if ongoing trade wars disrupt miners’ business models, several cryptocurrency executives told Cointelegraph. 

“Aggressive tariffs and retaliatory trade policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators, and other core participants in blockchain networks,” Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, CEO of Concrete & Glow Finance, said. 

“In moments of global uncertainty, the infrastructure supporting crypto, not just the assets themselves, can become collateral damage.”

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The Lomond School in Scotland will accept Bitcoin (BTC) tuition payments beginning in the Autumn semester of 2025, making it the first school in the United Kingdom to do so.

Accepting Bitcoin is part of the school’s plan to integrate “sound money principles” from the Austrian School of Economics into the curriculum to “prepare students for the uncertain future,” the announcement reads, adding:

“Bitcoin is available to anyone willing to learn — making it more democratic and inclusive, particularly for people in developing nations who lack access to traditional banking. Lomond sees Bitcoin as a perfect real-world case study in economics, computing, ethics, and innovation.”

The school has no plans to accept other cryptocurrencies, and will convert the BTC to fiat currency immediately, according to the announcement. It might establish a BTC treasury in the future, pending input from the Lomond community.

Lomond’s announcement highlights the growing tide of institutions adopting Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation amid turmoil in the global financial order.

Value of the British pound (GBP) 1209-2025. Source: Statista

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Bitcoin slowly makes its way through the education system

Bitcoin is now part of the curriculum in several schools and universities; some of these institutions have also adopted a BTC treasury strategy to protect reserves against the corrosive effects of inflation on purchasing power.

In 2022, the University of Cincinnati added crypto courses to its curriculum to teach students about BTC and emerging Web3 technologies.

Mi Primer Bitcoin, a Bitcoin education initiative, partnered with the Ministry of Education in El Salvador in 2023 to integrate Bitcoin education into the school system.

Visual of Bitcoin’s hard supply cap expressed through successive halving events. Source: River

The University of Wyoming launched the Bitcoin Research Institute in July 2024 to conduct peer-reviewed academic studies about the decentralized digital asset.

In February 2025, the University of Austin announced that its endowment fund allocated $5 million to BTC investments. The university’s endowment fund has approximately $200 million in assets under management.

Chun Lai, the endowment fund’s chief investment officer, said the fund wanted BTC exposure to capitalize on the financial upside of digital assets as crypto experiences increased institutional adoption.

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