PayPal Mafia alum and Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks became one of US President Donald Trump’s first major picks for a crypto role as he prepared to retake office, naming Sacks White House AI and crypto czar in December 2024. And in that role, Sacks has seen Congress pass the first major piece of crypto legislation and announced multiple executive orders signed by Trump addressing everything from the creation of a bitcoin reserve to order federal agencies to reevaluate how they view cryptocurrencies.
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The Silicon Valley veteran is no stranger to the cryptocurrency sector, having invested in companies like Bitwise, dYdx, and BitGo through his venture capital fund. Along with Craft Ventures, Sacks is a limited partner at Multicoin Capital.
“I look forward to working with each of you to create a golden age of digital assets,” he said during a press conference in early February, where he said cryptocurrencies were a “first-week priority for the administration.”
Sacks, as czar and formally a special government employee, enjoys a more prominent role than Bo Hines or Patrick Witt, the White House point people for congressional crypto negotiations, but he also faces restrictions on his role, an issue that Democrats in Congress have taken up.
He has also faced concerns about conflicts of interest since taking office, although he said earlier this year that he had divested himself of most of his actual crypto holdings and direct stakes in crypto companies.
According to The New York Times, Sacks still has some financial ties to tech and crypto interests, including companies that market themselves as artificial intelligence companies. Some of these alliances are due to the fact that he is still a partner in Craft Ventures, which in turn invested in several companies. Sacks said in a post on
