- David Sacks, Trump's senior adviser on AI and blockchain technology, to hold a press conference.
- Crypto's wish list in Washington is a long one.
- Sacks is a member of the PayPal mafia that helped build the global payments powerhouse.
Among the many crypto “firsts” of this early Trump administration is the appointment of David Sacks as the country’s crypto and AI czar.
It’s an unprecedented role, and Sacks is expected to foster a favourable regulatory environment for the growth of both industries.
“For the last four years, the Biden administration has basically prosecuted and persecuted crypto companies, really driving them offshore,” Sacks said in a recent interview on Fox Business.
On Tuesday, Sacks, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who is close to Elon Musk and billionaire investor Peter Thiel, plans to explain his approach in a press conference in Washington.
PayPal mafia
As one of several financiers tapped by Trump to stoke crypto in his second term, Sacks will be a point person for an industry that raised more than $133 million in campaign cash in the 2024 election.
But who is he?
A member of the so-called PayPal mafia, for starters.
In the late 1990s, Sacks, a 52-year-old South African native with a law degree from the University of Chicago, joined the online payments processor in its earliest days. Working alongside Musk and Thiel, Sacks was the company’s founding chief operating officer.
Following eBay’s $1.5 billion acquisition of PayPal in 2002, Sacks morphed into a startup founder and investor. His roster of companies includes, Geni, genealogy venture and Yammer, a business -to-business communications acquired by Microsoft. He did a stint as CEO of Zenefits, a human resources software maker.
In 2017, Sacks set up Craft Ventures, a VC firm that invested in BitGo, the issuer of wrapped Bitcoin, as well as Meta, Airbnb,and SpaceX. He was also an early investor in Solana thanks to a stake in Multicoin Capital.
Right-wing politics
Just like Musk and Thiel, Sacks embraced right-wing politics. He has written columns for The American Conservative arguing against US aid to Ukraine after it was invaded by Russia in 2022.
Last year, Sacks hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his San Francisco home producing $12 million for the Republican’s presidential campaign.
“The Biden-Harris administration has taken a world that was at peace under President Trump, and they lit it on fire,” Sacks said in an address at the Republican National Convention in July.
Now Sacks, who has 1.2 million followers on X, will be under pressure by the industry to help support the crypto industry’s wish list in Washington. There is a lot on the agenda, including stablecoin legislation, a possible Bitcoin strategic reserve, and exploring synergies between blockchain technology and AI.
He will have allies. Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, is pro-crypto. So, too, is Howard Lutnick, the Commerce secretary nominee who has done business with Tether, the stablecoin issuer.
Andrew Flanagan is a writer at DL News. Contact him at aflanagan@dlnews.com.
