Trump appoints former PayPal COO David Sacks as AI and crypto czar
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US President-elect Donald Trump said Mr David Sacks will work on a legal framework so the cryptocurrency industry can thrive in the US.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
WASHINGTON - US President-elect Donald Trump on Dec 5 said he was appointing former PayPal chief operating officer David Sacks to be his White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar.
“He will work on a legal framework so the crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the US,” Trump said in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
Trump – who once labelled crypto a scam – embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin broke US$100,000 for the first time on the night of Dec 4, a milestone hailed even by sceptics as a coming-of-age for digital assets as investors bet on a friendly US administration to cement the place of cryptocurrencies in financial markets.
Mr Sacks is also a former chief executive of software company Zenefits and founded Yammer, a social network for enterprise users.
Trump said Mr Sacks will also lead the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. REUTERS


