Bitcoin

US Senate bill threatens crypto, AI data centers with fees — Report

The bill in the American Senate threatens to hit data centers at the service of blockchain networks and artificial intelligence models with costs if they exceed the federal programs objectives, according to a Bloomberg report on April 11.

Directed by the Democrats of the Senate Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, the bill allegedly aims to combat the environmental impacts of the increase in energy demand and to protect households against higher energy bills, said Bloomberg.

Nicknamed the Clean Cloud ACT, the legislation requires that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a standard of performance in emissions for data centers and crypto extraction facilities with more than 100 kW of power of the installed computer signage.

The standard would be based on the regional intensities of grid emissions, with an annual reduction objective of 11%. The legislation also includes penalties for emissions exceeding the defined standard, from $ 20 per tonne of CO2e, the penalty increasing each year by additional $ 10 inflation.

“The demand for power power of cryptomers and data centers exceeds the growth of carbon-free electricity,” notes a minority blog article on the website of the US Senate committee on the environment and public works, adding that the use of electricity in data centers should represent up to 12% of the total demand from the United States by 2028.

According to research by Morgan Stanley, rapid growth in data centers is expected to generate around 2.5 billion metric tonnes of CO2 emissions worldwide by the end of the decade.

For Matthew Sigel, Vaneck’s head of research, the proposed legislation actually aims to distinguish Bitcoin minors (BTC) and similar operations for energy consumption in a strategy of “losing” the strategy of servers, “he said in a post of April 11.

In addition, the law could come up against the United States policy under President Donald Trump, who repealed an executive decree in 2023 by former President Joe Biden establishing AI security standards. Trump previously declared his intention to make the United States the “world capital” of AI and cryptocurrency.

The new American bill would penalize AI, Crypto data centers for energy consumption. Source: Matthew Sigel

In relation: Trade tensions to accelerate the adoption of institutional cryptography – managers

Bitcoin and AI converge

The bill, which has not yet adopted in the Senate, comes while Bitcoin minors – including the galaxy, the co -scorer and the terawulf – rotate more and more to provide high performance computer power (HPC) for AI models, said Vaneck.

Bitcoin minors experienced difficulties in 2025 while the drop in the prices of cryptocurrencies weighs on trade models already affected by the most recent in the Bitcoin network division.

Minors “diversify in the accommodation of AI data centers as a way to expand income and reuse the existing infrastructure for high performance IT,” said Coin Metrics.

Comparison of contracts related to the AI ​​of minors. Source: Valve

According to local metrics, minors ‘revenues began to stabilize in the first quarter of 2025. However, the recovery could be interrupted if the disturbed commercial wars of the miners’ commercial models, several cryptocurrency leaders told.

“Aggressive prices and commercial reprisal policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators and other main participants in Blockchain Networks,” said Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, CEO of Concrete & Glow Finance.

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

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