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.

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.

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.

The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump's tariffs continue to ramp up.

On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market's $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.

Nasdaq 100 is now "in a bear market"

Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.

The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now "in a bear market" after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.

"US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%," it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump's April 2 tariff announcement was "historic" and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be "impossible to avoid."

On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.

Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.

Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as 'World War 3 of trade wars' crushes US stocks

Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.

Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.

Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin's performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.

Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has "hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me."

Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin "doesn't appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking." Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Magazine: XRP win leaves Ripple a 'bad actor' with no crypto legal precedent set

Ether's (ETH) declining appeal as an investment comes from layer-2’s draining value from the main network and a lack of community pushback on excessive token creation, a crypto venture capitalist says.

“The #1 cause of this is greedy Eth L2s siphoning value from the L1 and the social consensus that excess token creation was A-OK,” Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said in a March 28 X post.

Ether “died by its own hand”

“ETH was buried in an avalanche of its own tokens. Died by its own hand,” Carter said. He said this in response to Lekker Capital founder Quinn Thompson’s claim that Ether is “completely dead” as an investment.

“A $225 billion market cap network that is seeing declines in transaction activity, user growth and fees/revenues. There is no investment case here. As a network with utility? Yes. As an investment? Absolutely not,” Thompson said in a March 28 X post. 

The ETH/BTC ratio — which shows Ether’s relative strength compared to Bitcoin (BTC) — is sitting at 0.02260, its lowest level in nearly five years, according to TradingView data. 

At the time of publication, Ether is trading at $1,894, down 5.34% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Meanwhile, Cointelegraph Magazine reported in September 2024 that fee revenue for Ethereum had “collapsed” by 99% over the previous six months as “extractive L2s” absorbed all the users, transactions and fee revenue while contributing nothing to the base layer. 

Around the same time, Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran said Based Rollups could solve the issue of Ethereum’s layer-2 networks pulling liquidity and revenue from the blockchain’s base layer.

Cochran said Based Rollups could “directly impact the monetization of Ethereum by making a pretty fundamental change to incentive structures.”

Related: Ethereum futures premium hits 1+ year low — Is it time to buy the ETH bottom?

Despite optimism toward the end of last year about Ether reaching $10,000 in 2025 — especially after reaching $4,000 in December, the same month Bitcoin touched $100,000 for the first time — it has since seen a sharp decline alongside the broader crypto market downturn.

Standard Chartered added to the bearish outlook via a March 17 client letter, which revised down their end of 2025 ETH price estimate from $10,000 to $4,000, a 60% reduction. 

However, several crypto traders, including pseudonymous traders Doctor Profit and Merlijn The Trader, are “insanely bullish” and argue that Ether could be the “best opportunity in the market.”

Magazine: Arbitrum co-founder skeptical of move to based and native rollups: Steven Goldfeder

Stablecoin issuer Tether is reportedly engaging with a Big Four accounting firm to audit its assets reserve and verify that its USDT (USDT) stablecoin is backed at a 1:1 ratio.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino reportedly said the audit process would be more straightforward under pro-crypto US President Donald Trump. It comes after rising industry concerns over a potential FTX-style liquidity crisis for Tether due to its lack of third-party audits.

Tether to produce first full audit after scrutiny

“If the President of the United States says this is top priority for the US, Big Four auditing firms will have to listen, so we are very happy with that,” Ardoino told Reuters on March 21.

“It’s our top priority,” Ardoino said. It was reported that Tether is currently subject to quarterly reports but not a full independent annual audit, which is much more extensive and provides more assurance to investors and regulators.

However, Ardoino did not specify which of the Big Four accounting firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, or KPMG — he plans to engage.

Tether’s USDT maintains its stable value by claiming to be pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio. This means each USDT token is backed by reserves equivalent to its circulating supply. 

These reserves include traditional currency, cash equivalents and other assets.

Earlier this month, Tether hired Simon McWilliams as chief financial officer in preparation for a full financial audit.

Industry concerns over Tether’s lack of audits

In September 2024, Cyber Capital founder Justin Bons was among those in the industry who voiced concerns about Tether’s lack of transparency.

“[Tether is] one of the biggest existential threats to crypto. As we have to trust they hold $118B in collateral without proof! Even after the CFTC fined Tether for lying about their reserves in 2021,” Bons said.

Related: Tether freezes $27M USDT on sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex

Around the same time, Consumers’ Research, a consumer protection group, published a report criticizing Tether for its lack of transparency.

Just three years prior, in 2021, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Tether a $41 million civil monetary penalty for lying about USDT being fully backed by reserves.

Meanwhile, more recently, Tether has voiced disappointment over new European regulations that have forced exchanges like Crypto.com to delist USDT and nine other tokens to comply with MiCA.

“It is disappointing to see the rushed actions brought on by statements which do little to clarify the basis for such moves,” a spokesperson for Tether told Cointelegraph.

Cointelegraph reached out to Tether but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Magazine: Dummies guide to native rollups: L2s as secure as Ethereum itself

Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who recently won a leadership contest of the Liberal Party to replace Justin Trudeau, has dramatically increased his odds of winning the next federal election in the eyes of Polymarket bettors.

Carney now has a 49% chance of winning the next Canadian election, compared to 26% a month ago. Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre's chances are at 51%, down from 72% in February.

The next Canadian federal election is scheduled to occur on October 20, 2025.

However, under Canada's Westminster system, if the opposition Conservatives and NDP jointly vote against the minority Liberal government on a confidence motion after Parliament resumes from prorogation on March 24, requested by Trudeau on Jan. 6, as he announced his resignation plans pending a new Liberal leader, the government would fall, triggering an election.

Carney closing the gap against Poilievre on Polymarket – despite a lag between prediction markets and the polls – echoes what the polls are showing.

The Conservatives are just one percentage point ahead of the Liberals, according to Canadian pollster Nanos Research, down from nearly a 16-point lead a month ago according to a polling average.

Observers credit this dramatic shift to trade threats from the U.S., with pollsters indicating Canadians prefer Carney's business sense and central bank experience over his opponent.

This is all a bit of a contrast to last year's U.S. election, where prediction markets consistently showed that then-Republican candidate Donald Trump had a lead over his Democratic opponents.

The election result, as CoinDesk wrote in an editorial at the time, was only a surprise to those who get their information from CNN.

Crypto on the Canadian campaign trail?

Crypto doesn't seem to be a major plank of a hypothetical Canadian election. While Poilievre holds a Canadian-issued BTC ETF, according to disclosures, and has previously made pro-blockchain and crypto comments, most of the campaign rhetoric appears to be about the trade war.

Likewise, Carney, who has made mixed if not skeptical comments on crypto in his role as Bank of England governor hasn't yet spoken about the topic in his new role as Liberal leader.