David Sacks

David Sacks is a South African born American technology entrepreneur, investor, and public servant who serves as the White House AI and crypto czar in President Donald Trump’s second administration. Known for senior roles at PayPal, founding the enterprise social network Yammer, and co founding the venture capital firm Craft Ventures, he has become a central figure in debates over United States digital asset policy. Through his government role and venture portfolio, Sacks has significant influence on the regulatory trajectory of Bitcoin (BTC), stablecoins, and broader crypto markets.

Early Life and Education

Sacks was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1972 and immigrated to the United States as a child. He studied economics at Stanford University, where he developed an interest in technology startups and the emerging consumer internet. He later earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, a background that has informed his focus on regulation, institutional design, and the legal architecture that underpins both traditional finance and digital assets.

By combining training in economics and law, Sacks entered the technology industry with a toolkit suited to questions of market structure, incentives, and governance. Those themes would later resurface in his views on crypto regulation and the role of the United States in shaping global standards for digital assets and artificial intelligence.

Career in Technology and Venture Capital

Sacks joined Confinity in the late 1990s, a startup that evolved into PayPal. As product leader and later chief operating officer, he helped build teams responsible for product management, risk, operations, and international expansion during a period when online payments were still experimental. PayPal went public in 2002 and was acquired by eBay the same year, and Sacks became one of the better known members of the so called “PayPal Mafia” of early executives and founders who went on to shape later waves of Silicon Valley startups.

In 2006 he founded Geni.com, a genealogy platform that incubated an internal communications tool which was spun out as Yammer in 2008. Yammer pioneered enterprise social networking for internal corporate communication and collaboration, grew rapidly in the software as a service market, and was acquired by Microsoft in 2012 for approximately $1.2 billion. Sacks later served as interim chief executive at HR software firm Zenefits, where he negotiated regulatory settlements and attempted to reset the company’s business model after a period of compliance issues.

In 2017 Sacks co founded Craft Ventures, a San Francisco based venture capital firm focused on early stage technology companies. Craft has backed a portfolio of software, fintech, and infrastructure startups, including high profile firms in ride sharing, collaboration software, and logistics. Public reporting also links the firm to a set of crypto native or crypto adjacent companies, giving Sacks exposure to the development of exchanges, trading tools, and infrastructure that bridge traditional finance and digital assets.

Entry into Crypto and Digital Assets

Before entering public service, Sacks was known in crypto circles primarily as a venture investor and commentator. Through Craft Ventures and personal investments, he has been associated with support for blockchain infrastructure, trading platforms, and payment technology that use crypto rails. His role as a co host of the “All In” podcast further amplified his views on monetary policy, regulation, and the long term role of digital assets in the global financial system.

Sacks has generally framed crypto not as a replacement for the United States dollar but as a set of technologies that, if properly regulated, can reinforce United States leadership in payments and capital markets. He has argued that poorly designed policy, or enforcement led strategies without clear rules, risk pushing innovation offshore while doing little to protect consumers or systemic stability.

White House Role in AI and Crypto Policy

In December 2024 Trump announced that Sacks would serve as Special Advisor for AI and Crypto in the incoming administration, a position widely described as the White House “AI and crypto czar.” Sacks formally took office on January 20, 2025, and also became a co chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. From this position, he sits at the intersection of technology policy, financial regulation, and national security.

Within the administration, Sacks is tasked with coordinating digital asset strategy across agencies, including the Treasury Department, banking regulators, and market supervisors. He has been a visible figure at the White House Crypto Summit and related events, where officials have outlined ambitions to make the United States a leading jurisdiction for tokenization, custody, and payments built on public blockchains.

Stablecoins, the GENIUS Act, and the Bitcoin Reserve

A core pillar of Sacks’ policy agenda has been a federal framework for dollar backed stablecoins. He has argued that properly regulated stablecoins could increase global demand for dollar denominated assets and strengthen the international role of the United States currency. These views are reflected in the administration’s support for the GENIUS Act, legislation that created the first nationwide licensing and oversight regime for payment stablecoin issuers and mandated full reserve backing. The measure, signed into law in July 2025, is covered in detail in CryptoSlate’s analysis of the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework.

Sacks has also been closely linked to the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a separate United States Digital Asset Stockpile, established by executive order in March 2025. As reported by CryptoSlate, the initiative directs the federal government to retain forfeited crypto assets as long term holdings rather than routinely liquidating them, positioning the reserve as a kind of “digital Fort Knox.” Coverage of the order, including Sacks’ remarks on the policy’s rationale and limits, appears in CryptoSlate’s reporting on Trump’s decision to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Controversies and Ethics Questions

Sacks’ dual identity as a high profile venture capitalist and senior government adviser has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and watchdog groups. Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic members of Congress, have questioned whether his status as a temporary special government employee is compatible with ongoing roles in private investment funds that may benefit from policy changes. CryptoSlate has reported on these concerns, including calls for clarity over his time in office, his financial interests, and the safeguards used to manage potential conflicts.

Sacks and his representatives have pushed back on allegations of misconduct, saying that he has followed ethics guidance and divestment requirements where necessary. Supporters argue that his operator and investor background equips him to understand the technical and economic details of crypto markets, while opponents worry that close ties to industry could tilt policy toward deregulation and regulatory capture.

Role in the Digital Asset Ecosystem

David Sacks sits at a rare intersection of startup culture, venture capital, and national policy making. His career spans early internet payments, enterprise software, and film production, and now extends into one of the most consequential experiments in financial infrastructure in decades. As White House AI and crypto czar, his influence reaches from the design of United States stablecoin rules to the management of a federal Bitcoin reserve, with implications for global markets and regulatory competition.

Supporters view Sacks as a pragmatic advocate for clear rules, full reserve stablecoins, and long term strategic holdings of digital assets. Critics emphasize the risks of concentration of influence and unresolved questions around ethics and conflicts of interest. For the crypto industry, his tenure is likely to remain a reference point for how deeply venture backed technology leaders can shape, and be shaped by, the regulatory frameworks that govern digital assets.

• White House AI & Crypto Czar
• Craft Ventures Founder/Partner
• Producers Guild of America Producer