Most Influential: David Sacks

PayPal Mafia alum and Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks became one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s earliest major picks for a crypto role as he prepared to retake office, naming Sacks the White House AI and Crypto Czar in December 2024. And in that role, Sacks has seen Congress pass the first-ever major piece of crypto legislation and announced multiple executive orders signed by Trump addressing everything from the creation of a Bitcoin BTC$91,580.81 reserve to directing federal agencies to reassess how they view crypto.

This feature is a part of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2025 list.

The Silicon Valley veteran is no stranger to the crypto sector, having invested in companies like Bitwise, dYdx and BitGo through his venture capital fund. Alongside Craft Ventures, Sacks is a limited partner at Multicoin Capital.

“I look forward to working with each of you in creating a golden age in digital assets,” he said during a press conference in early February, where he said crypto was a “week-one priority for the administration.”

Sacks, as a czar and formally a Special Government Employee, enjoys a more prominent role than either Bo Hines or Patrick Witt, the White House’s point persons for Congressional crypto negotiations, but also faces restrictions on his role, an issue Democrats in Congress have taken up.

He’s also faced conflict-of-interest concerns since taking on the role, though he said earlier this year that he had divested from most of his actual crypto holdings and direct stakes in crypto firms.

According to The New York Times, Sacks still has some financial tie-ups with technology and crypto interests, including companies that market themselves as AI firms. Some of these tie-ups come through the fact that he’s still a partner at Craft Ventures, which in turn invested in a number of companies. Sacks said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that some of the claims were “baseless” and details “fabricated,” and hired the Clare Locke law firm to write a letter to the Times (which subsequently said it stood by its reporting).