David Sacks has defended himself against recent allegations that he used his position to manipulate crypto markets, calling the claims baseless.
Speaking in a new episode of The All-In Podcast, the White House AI and crypto czar addressed accusations that he engaged in a scheme to inflate his crypto holdings for personal gain.
“People came out right away and were saying that somehow I was engaged in a scheme to pump my bags or to basically create exit liquidity for myself,” Sacks said, arguing that these claims are serious since they amount to accusations of a crime.
Sacks reiterated that he had divested all his crypto holdings before joining the administration to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. He confirmed in an earlier statement that he had sold Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
“When it comes to crypto, there are going to be fluctuations in the market,” he explained. “You never want someone to be able to point at one of those fluctuations and say somehow that the cryptos are benefited from that and create a conspiracy theory, which is exactly what basically happened.”
Sacks disclosed that he and his venture firm Kraft had liquidated approximately $200 million in crypto assets, of which $85 million was personally attributable to him.
“We cleared that before day one, paid taxes on it, and basically said there wouldn’t be a conflict,” he stated, adding that the scrutiny then shifted; people claimed that even if he didn’t own crypto, he was still invested in crypto funds.
Sacks clarified that beyond direct crypto holdings, he also withdrew from multiple crypto-focused investment funds, including positions in Bitwise, Multicoin Capital, and Blockchain Capital.
“At this point, I think they’ve basically given up on this narrative,” Sacks said.
According to Calacanis, who manages one of the divested funds, the process requires selling fund interests at discounts of “50%, 25% off,” potentially resulting in eight or nine-figure losses for Sacks.
Trump’s crypto tsar also dismissed the notion that he sought financial gain through his role. He disclosed that he’s taking an unpaid consultant role in the administration.
Sacks criticized the assumption that wealthy individuals enter government for financial gain, calling it “lazy and stupid.”
“It’s a lazy and stupid narrative to say that the reason why someone who’s already successful in business goes into government is to somehow make more money. I was making money before,” he said. “This involves a substantial disruption of my business interests.”
Sacks reiterated that his divestments were necessary to avoid any ethical concerns, even if it meant huge financial loss.
“In divesting, I have to either pay taxes or take a significant discount. It costs you money,” he said. “So it’s just a lazy narrative that people create. But there’s no truth to it.”
Sacks has faced public scrutiny over allegations of potential conflicts of interest tied to his role as Trump’s crypto and AI czar.
Critics, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have raised concerns that Sacks could influence Trump’s pick of altcoins for the US crypto reserve and financially benefit from those picks, which include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and XRP.
The President eventually signed an executive order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a US digital asset stockpile, using legal forfeiture.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday, Sacks clarified that Trump previously mentioned XRP, SOL, and ADA because they were among the top five crypto assets by market cap.
