- Part of the famous “PayPal mafia” with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and more.
- Invested in dYdX, River Finance, Bitwise, Dune, and Sandbox under his VC, Craft Ventures.
- Co-hosts the All-In Podcast with other industry leaders like Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, and Jason Calacanis.
President-elect Donald Trump announced David Sacks as the “White House AI and Crypto Czar,” who will create a legal framework to provide the long-awaited clarity in the crypto industry and protect free speech.
For artificial intelligence, Sacks will focus on safeguarding free speech online and steer away from Big Tech bias and censorship. For cryptocurrency, Sacks will focus on creating the long-awaited and highly requested legal framework, providing the needed clarity for the crypto industries to thrive in the United States.
Sacks will also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST), an advisory group of scientists, engineers, and industry leaders providing the U.S. President with expert advice on technology and science fields.
Who Is David Sacks?
David Sacks was the former COO of PayPal from 1999 to 2000, and per his LinkedIn profile, he was part of the original “PayPal mafia,” a group of former PayPal employees who became multi-millionaires to billionaires, with other members including:
Sacks, a Silicon Valley insider and venture capitalist, hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for Trump in June in his mansion, raising over $12 million. He is also closely associated with Elon Musk and supported Musk’s efforts to acquire Twitter.
David Sacks founded Yammer, an enterprise social network pioneering bottom-up SaaS, which Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion in 2012.
Artistically, Sacks produced “Thank You for Smoking,” starring Aaron Eckhart, Robert Duvall, and Katie Holmes, which was nominated for Best Picture at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. He also produced Dali Land, starring Sir Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dali.
Sacks founded the Craft Ventures venture capital firm, which invested in major crypto projects like dYdX, Lightning Labs, River Finance, BitGo, Bitwise, Sandbox, and Dune and other major companies like Meta, Reddit, SpaceX, Slack, Airbnb, and X, among others.
He is also a co-host of the All-In Podcast with Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya, The Production Board founder and CEO David Friedberg, and angel investor Jason Calaacanis, who invested in Robinhood, Uber, Trello, and others.
Limitations of His Position
As described by Donald Trump, Sacks’ role will be to guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, but the extent of his involvement in the execution remains unclear.
FOX also previously discussed that the CFTC could lead digital asset regulation under Trump, including spot markets and their trading exchanges, instead of the SEC. However, this hasn’t been officially confirmed.
The market’s faith in the SEC handling regulation could also be renewed with SEC Chair Gary Gensler stepping down and pro-crypto Paul Atkins replacing him. Atkins also understood the assignment, saying he recognized that digital assets and other innovations were crucial to “Make America Greater than Ever Before,” per Donald Trump.
