Who is David Sacks, the first "Crypto and AI Czar" in the United States? What projects has he invested in?

Deng Tong, Golden Finance; Source: Golden Finance, Wikipedia, Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street News, Investing, CoinTelegraph

I. Overview

Trump will appoint David O. Sacks as the White House Director of Cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence to lead US policy and regulatory affairs in the field of cryptocurrency. Sacks is a well-known Silicon Valley investor and supporter of blockchain technology.  

Trump said: "Sacks will work to develop a legal framework to provide the crypto industry with the clarity it has been seeking, so that the industry can flourish in the United States." Who is David Sacks? Why can he serve as the White House Director of Cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence? What impact will it have on the crypto market?

Second, David O. Sacks, a member of the "PayPal Mafia"

David Oliver Sacks (born May 25, 1972), a South African-American entrepreneur, writer and investor in Internet technology companies, is a general partner of Craft Ventures. In addition, he hosts the All In podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg. Previously, Sacks served as COO and head of product at PayPal, as well as founder and CEO of Yammer. In 2016, he served as interim CEO of Zenefits for ten months. In 2017, Sacks co-founded the early-stage venture fund Craft Ventures, and in December 2024, President-elect Donald Trump appointed Sacks as the White House AI and encryption czar of the new administration.

Sacks attended the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University in 1994 and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998.

In 1999, Sacks left his job as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company to join Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek's e-commerce startup Confinity. Later that year, Sacks became the first head of product for Confinity's landmark product and successor company, PayPal. After rising to the position of Chief Operating Officer of Paypal, he built many of the company's key teams, responsible for product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, anti-fraud operations, and human resources functions. PayPal's initial public offering was held in February 2002. It was one of the earliest IPOs after the September 11 attacks. The stock price rose more than 54% on the first day. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.

Sacks was a member of the so-called "PayPal Mafia," a group of PayPal founders and early employees who went on to found a string of other successful tech companies. They are often considered pioneers of the resurgence of Web 2.0 and consumer-centric Internet companies after the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.

Third, with a unique vision, enter encryption and AI

In late 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures and raised $350 million in initial funding. According to a Medium post published by the company, Craft raised $1.1 billion in 2021, bringing its total assets under management to $2 billion. As an angel investor, his investment projects include Addepar, Affirm, Airbnb, Clutter, Eventbrite, Facebook, Gusto, Houzz, Intercom, Mixpanel, Opendoor, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, Postmates, ResearchGate, Rumble, Scribd, Slack, SpaceX, SurveyMonkey, ThirdLove, Uber, Wish, etc.

According to Rootdata data, in the field of encryption, Craft Ventures' investments cover infrastructure, CeFi, DeFi, NFT and other fields, including many well-known projects.

Sacks not only bet on the encryption track, but also turned his attention to AI.

In 2021, Sacks and his former colleague at Craft, Evan Owen, co-founded a workspace chat company called Glue. Their product is an AI tool that can be called from specific chats on platforms such as Google Meet and Zoom, allowing employees to get AI help in conversations. It was launched to the public in May 2024.

Fourth, Trump has a keen eye for talent

Trump fully expressed his affirmation of Sachs in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on December 6.

Trump believes that Sacks is "an extremely successful entrepreneur" and has a keen insight into two "key" industries.

Trump said in a social media post: "David will guide the government's policies on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, two areas that are critical to America's future competitiveness. David will work to make the United States a global leader in both areas." "He will work to develop a legal framework so that the crypto industry can get the clarity it requires and survive in the United States." 

Trump said Sachs will also help maintain freedom of speech on the Internet and steer the United States away from "bias and censorship by large technology companies." Sachs publicly supported Trump during the 2024 election and also supports digital assets.  

V. Reaction of the Crypto Market

As the news continued to ferment, the crypto market sectors generally rose, led by the AI ​​concept, with the AI ​​sector and sub-sector AI Agent rising by 15.43% and 19.34% respectively. It is worth noting that in the AI ​​Agents sector, Numogram (GNON) rose by 51.73%, Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) rose by 46.49%, ai16z (AI16Z) rose by 39.38%, zerebro (ZEREBRO) rose by 37.04%, and Eliza (ELIZA) rose by 32.59%. In the AI ​​sector, Worldcoin (WLD) rose by 24.78%, Render (RNDR) rose by 23.77%, and Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) rose by 23.75%.

Other sectors with higher increases include: DePIN sector rose by 7.74%, Livepeer (LPT) in the sector rose by 26.8%, Ankr Network (ANKR) rose by 16.42%, and Grass (GRASS) rose by 13%. Layer 2 sector rose 4.72%, DeFi sector rose 4.33%, Meme sector rose 4.28%, GameFi sector rose 4.20%, and Layer 1 sector rose 3.43%.

DYDX, a project invested by Craft Ventures, was affected by the good news. DYDX broke through $2 and is now at $2.11, with a 24-hour increase of 16.9%.

VI. Conclusion

Previously, many articles in Jinse Finance mentioned the connection between Trump cabinet members and encryption. Since Trump shouted the slogan "Make sure the United States becomes a Bitcoin superpower" at the Bitcoin Conference in July this year, Trump has started the encryption road in the United States.

After that, Trump appointed Musk to lead the Government Efficiency Department, and DOGE soared; the Internet celebrity squirrel Peanut fueled the election battle between the Republicans and the Democrats, and PNUT was once very popular; Trump chose Paul Atkins, a digital asset advocate and senior financial regulator, as the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), helping BTC break through the $100,000 mark; the finalization of the White House's cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence director clearly stated Trump's determination to vigorously develop encryption and AI in the next term.

One person can lead an era. Since Trump was elected, the encryption market has been advancing by leaps and bounds. After breaking through the $100,000 mark, what other surprises will the world of AI+Crypto bring us?

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