A White House memorandum revealed that David Sacks and his venture capital firm sold more than $200 million in cryptocurrency and crypto-related stocks before he assumed his role as the White House AI and crypto czar.
“You and Craft Ventures have divested over $200 million of positions related to the digital asset industry, of which $85 million is directly attributable to you,” said the memorandum dated March 5.
Crypto sell-off an effort to prevent conflict of interest
The memorandum said “significant steps” were taken to reduce potential conflicts of interest before Sacks began his tenure as the White House AI and crypto czar — in which a major part of his role is to help create a legal framework for the crypto industry.
Sacks offloaded all the “liquid cryptocurrency” in his portfolio, as well as Craft Ventures’ portfolio — the investment firm he co-founded in 2017 — including holdings in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL) before US President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The memorandum outlined which cryptocurrencies and crypto-related stocks David Sacks sold before Trump’s inauguration. Source: The White House
Since Trump’s inauguration, the crypto market has seen a major decline amid a broader market downturn, with many blaming Trump’s proposed tariffs and uncertainty over US interest rates.
While Bitcoin tapped a new all-time high of $109,000 just hours before Trump was sworn in as the 47th US president, it recently dipped below $80,000 on Feb. 27, erasing all post-election gains. At the time of publication, Bitcoin is trading at $84,155, as per CoinMarketCap data.
Sacks also divested from publicly traded crypto-related firms, including Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), and stakes in private digital asset companies.
Additionally, he sold his limited partner interest in Solana-focused Multichain Capital and crypto-focused venture capital firm Blockchain Capital. At the same time, Craft Ventures offloaded its holdings in Multichain Capital and Bitwise Asset Management.
Sen. Warren urged Sacks to prove he no longer holds crypto
The memorandum is dated one day before Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren urged Sacks in a March 6 letter to prove he no longer holds any digital assets, following Sacks’ claim in an X post that he sold off all his crypto.
“Despite your public statements via X, it remains unclear exactly when you personally divested from BTC, ETH, and SOL, when Craft Ventures divested from Bitwise, and whether people close to you ‘may have held positions and sold into the recent price surge,” Warren said.
Since Sacks started the White House crypto role, he has been a vocal advocate on various issues in the crypto industry, from the importance of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to not over-taxing the crypto industry.
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Sacks recently shut down the idea of crypto transaction taxes on an episode of the All In Podcast after host Jason Calacanis proposed charging a 0.01% tax on every cryptocurrency transaction.
“That’s always how taxes start. They are described as being very modest,” Sacks said.
“You know, when the income tax started, it only applied to like a thousand Americans, and the legislators swore up and down that it would never be applied to middle-class people,” Sacks added.
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