(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he would appoint former PayPal (NASDAQ: ) chief operating officer David Sachs as his “White House AI & Crypto Czar,” another move by U.S. policy to review.
“He will work on the legislative framework so that the crypto industry can have the clarity it has been asking for and thrive in the United States,” Trump said in a post on social media site Truth Social, without saying whether he was “king.” official title.
The crypto king and other officials in the incoming Trump administration, such as the chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the chairmen of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are expected to, along with the newly formed Crypto Advisory Council, change US policy regarding digital currency.
Trump’s tech supporters generally want to see minimal regulation around artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, saying Washington is stifling growing innovative sectors with excessive regulations.
Elad Gil, an entrepreneur who has invested in companies such as Airbnb and cryptocurrency platform Coinbase (NASDAQ: ), called Sacks’ selection “a strong move” in a post on X. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X, “Congratulations King @DavidSacks!”
“Sacks is likely to have a light touch on regulation, but not without some guardrail,” Steve Zhang, founder of Kindred Ventures, told Reuters. Zhang has co-invested with Sacks in both cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence startups.
He predicted that Sacks would prioritize regulating how AI is used in certain critical applications, instead of focusing on regulating the development of AI models themselves. The distinction has been a point of contention for Silicon Valley investors, who strongly opposed California’s failed SB 1047 bill, which sought to regulate the development of artificial intelligence models.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he will nominate prominent Washington lawyer and crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the SEC, in a move the industry is celebrating.
Trump, who once called crypto a fraud, embraced the digital asset during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and amass a national supply of bitcoin.
It broke $100,000 for the first time on Wednesday night, a milestone that even skeptics hailed as the age of digital assets, as investors bet on a friendly US administration to cement the cryptocurrency’s place in financial markets.
Matthew Deeb, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Astronaut Capital, described the news as extremely bullish. “David has had a hands-on approach to crypto over the years, sometimes holding coins like Solana. He seems to be much more technically and commercially competent in crypto than most people think,” Dib said.
Born in South Africa, Sachs, 52, is the co-founder of venture capital firm Craft Ventures and an early leader at PayPal, the payment processing firm that was acquired by eBay (NASDAQ: ) in 2002.
Sachs is believed to be a member of the “PayPal Mafia” of former employees and executives at the digital finance firm, which includes prominent Trump supporters Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
Musk, the Tesla (NASDAQ: ) CEO who heads artificial intelligence startup xAI, is a crypto fan and was tapped by Trump to co-head the new Department of Government Efficiency. The Government Simplification Advisory Council is nicknamed DOGE, the name of the cryptocurrency.
Sacks is also the former CEO of software company Zenefits and founded Yammer, a social network for enterprise users.
He was an early evangelist for cryptocurrencies, telling CNBC in a 2017 interview that he believed Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, would revolutionize the Internet.
“It feels like we’re witnessing the birth of a new kind of web. Some have called it the decentralized web or the internet of money,” he said.
Trump said Sachs will also lead the White House’s Science and Technology Advisory Council.
rqkgxgCX GHgL CAYlJnJm oJI wUo