On December 5, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that David Sacks would serve as "White House AI & Crypto Czar," a newly created advisory role overseeing federal artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy. Sacks is a founding member of the "PayPal Mafia" -- the network of early PayPal executives that includes Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. He served as COO and product leader of PayPal, later founded Yammer (sold to Microsoft), and runs Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund with extensive crypto and AI portfolio investments.
Sacks took the role part-time as a Special Government Employee, allowing him to continue operating Craft Ventures while setting government AI and crypto policy. In March 2025, the White House issued an ethics waiver allowing Sacks to oversee crypto regulation despite his personal crypto investments, which he disclosed selling approximately $200 million of before taking the position. After reaching the 130-day SGE limit, Sacks transitioned to co-chairing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
The conflict-of-interest vector is fundamental: Sacks was simultaneously shaping the regulatory framework for industries in which he and his fund are major investors. The crypto industry spent heavily to elect Trump, and Sacks's appointment signaled that industry insiders would write the rules governing their own sector. Senator Elizabeth Warren publicly challenged the arrangement, noting that Sacks "simultaneously leads a firm invested in crypto while guiding the nation's crypto policy." The ethics waiver formalized what was already structurally obvious -- that the AI and crypto czar position was designed to let industry capture the regulatory process.