Tron founder Justin Sun says he’s unaware of the recent rumors surrounding former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, following reports alleging that Zhao provided evidence against him as part of his plea deal with the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

“I’m not aware of the circulating rumors. CZ is both my mentor and a close friend,” Sun said in an April 11 X post.

Sun brushes off CZ rumors

“He has played a crucial role in supporting me during my entrepreneurial journey,” Sun added.

Sun’s X post came just hours after speculation grew over an April 11 Wall Street Journal report, which alleged that Zhao agreed to provide evidence on Sun as part of his plea deal, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Source: db

Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations.

The report added, “that arrangement hasn’t previously been reported.”

Zhao hasn’t publicly addressed the reports at the time of publication, but the day before, he warned his 10 million X followers that he had been told a “baseless hit piece” about him was being written.

Sun commended Zhao’s integrity and said that the DoJ is one of T3 Financial Crime Unit’s (T3 FCU) — which Tron co-founded along with Tether and TRM Labs — “closest and most trusted partners.”

“To this day, his conduct and principles remain the highest standard I strive to follow as a founder,” Sun said of Zhao. Sun added:

“Whether it’s CZ or our partners at the DOJ, we maintain direct, honest communication at all times. I have full trust in each and every one of them.”

Zhao walked free from a US federal prison on Sept. 27. With a reported net worth of approximately $60 billion at the time, Zhao is the wealthiest person ever to serve a prison sentence in the US.

Source: Justin Sun

Meanwhile, on Feb. 26, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Sun asked a federal court to pause the regulator’s case against the crypto entrepreneur to allow for settlement talks.

In March 2023, the SEC sued Sun and three of his companies, the entity behind Tron, the Tron Foundation and the file-sharing platform backers the BitTorrent Foundation and its San Francisco-based parent firm, Rainberry Inc.

Cointelegraph reached out to the US Department of Justice but did not receive a response by time of publication.

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. 

Related: SEC, Ripple file joint motion to pause appeals in XRP case

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.”

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again