President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday announced the appointment of former PayPal (PYPL.O) chief operating officer David Sachs as the “White House AI and crypto czar,” signaling a fundamental overhaul of U.S. policy. This is a new step towards this goal.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social, President Trump said he would “work on a legal framework that will give the crypto industry the transparency it has sought and allow it to thrive in the United States.” did not mention whether or not it was correct. official title.
The crypto czar and other officials in the incoming Trump administration, including the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with the newly created Cryptocurrency Advisory Board, will reshape U.S. policy on digital currencies. It is expected that this will happen.
Trump's tech supporters generally want minimal regulation of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, arguing that the U.S. government will stifle a growing innovative sector with overregulation. I am doing it.
Entrepreneur Elad Gil, who has invested in companies such as Airbnb and cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, called Sachs' selection “a strong decision” in a post on X. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote about X: “Congratulations to Emperor @DavidSacks!” ”
“Sachs will probably be light on regulation, but it's not without some guardrails,” Steve Jiang, founder of Kindred Ventures, told Reuters. Chan has co-invested with Sachs in both crypto and AI startups.
He predicted that Sachs would prioritize regulating how AI is used in certain critical applications, rather than focusing on regulating the development of AI models themselves. This distinction was a key issue for Silicon Valley investors who fiercely opposed California's pending SB 1047 bill, which sought to regulate AI model development.
President Trump announced on Wednesday that he would nominate Paul Atkins, a prominent Washington lawyer and cryptocurrency advocate, to lead the SEC, a move welcomed by the industry.
Trump, who once branded cryptocurrencies a scam, pledged during his campaign to embrace the digital asset, making the United States “the crypto asset of the planet” and accumulating a national stockpile of Bitcoin.
On Wednesday night, Bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time. It was a milestone hailed as a coming of age for the digital asset even by skeptics, as investors bet on a friendly US administration to solidify the cryptocurrency's place in financial markets.
Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at crypto asset management firm Astronaut Capital, called the news extremely bullish. “David has had a somewhat hands-on approach to cryptocurrencies over the years, having held coins such as Solana. It also appears to be commercially viable,” Dib said.
The 52-year-old South African-born Sachs is a co-founder of venture capital firm Craft Ventures and an early leader of payment processing company PayPal, which was acquired by eBay (EBAY.O) in 2002. Open a new tab.
Sachs is considered a member of the PayPal Mafia, a group of former employees and executives at the digital financial company, including prominent Trump supporters Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
Tesla (TSLA.O)'s Musk opens a new tab The CEO of artificial intelligence startup xAI is a crypto enthusiast who was appointed by President Trump to co-head the new Department of Government Efficiency. The Advisory Committee to Streamline Government is nicknamed DOGE, the name of the cryptocurrency.
Sachs is also the former CEO of software company Zenefits and founded Yammer, a social network for enterprise users.
He was an early evangelist of cryptocurrencies, telling CNBC in a 2017 interview that he believes the rise of Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, is revolutionizing the internet.
“I feel like we're witnessing the birth of a new kind of web, some people call it the decentralized web, or the internet of money,” he said.
President Trump said Sacks would also head the White House's Science and Technology Advisory Council.
Publisher:
Sudeep Lavania
Publication date:
December 6, 2024
