Donald Trump has picked a crypto bull to advise him on AI and cryptocurrency policy. On Thursday evening, the president-elect took to Truth Social to share that he was appointing former PayPal COO David Sacks to serve as his “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Trump said Sacks would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology.
“David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas,” Trump wrote, adding Sacks would “safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship.”
As an appointee to one of the president’s advisory councils, Sacks does not need to go through the usual Senate confirmation process required for cabinet picks and federal agency leads. Sacks does not have previous government experience. Trump instead highlighted his business credentials, pointing to his tenure at PayPal and later Yammer, which Sacks founded in 2008 and Microsoft acquired in 2012 for $1.2 billion. Sacks is also a close confidant of Elon Musk and provided part of the funding Musk used to buy Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. Sacks has broadly advocated for smaller government and less regulation, though he also pushed hard for the Biden administration to intervene when Silicon Valley Bank became insolvent in 2023.
“Where is Powell? Where is Yellen?” Sacks tweeted before regulators moved to fully protect deposits at SVB. “Stop this crisis NOW. Announce that all depositors will be safe. Place SVB with a Top 4 bank. Do this before Monday open or there will be contagion and the crisis will spread.”
Alongside Paul Atkins, who Trump picked to lead the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Sacks is likely to reshape US policy on cryptocurrency and AI. Under the Biden administration, the federal government sought to regulate the crypto industry. Sacks, however, is a vocal proponent of the industry. He is also a major investor in Solana and other crypto-related ventures such as Multicoin Capital.
As for Trump, appointing Sacks to his advisory council shows just how much his stance on crypto has changed. As recently as 2021, he said he thought Bitcoin seemed “like a scam,” and advocated for “very, very high” government regulation of the currency. That was before the crypto industry funneled $131 million during the 2024 election to get 274 pro-crypto candidates elected to the House of Representatives and 20 candidates to the Senate. During his campaign, Trump promised to make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet.”
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