David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, is changing hats — moving from a short-term czarship into a formal advisory role as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), he announced Thursday on X.
Sacks, who was tapped to lead the administration’s early work on crypto and artificial intelligence prior to President Trump’s return to office last January, played a visible role in shaping early crypto policy. His portfolio included shepherding the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act through the White House agenda and advancing work on a broader crypto market structure bill.
The shift eliminates a legal headache Sacks faced in his previous role. He told Bloomberg the czar appointment had been classified as a “special government employee,” which limits service to 130 working days — a cap that Democrats in Congress said he may have exceeded last fall. As a PCAST co-chair, Sacks won’t be subject to that rule.
PCAST is the White House’s premier external science and technology advisory body. In his announcement Sacks highlighted the council’s remit: producing policy recommendations and conducting studies on frontier technologies. He told Bloomberg the group will focus on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nuclear power and other “cutting edge technologies,” and “push forward the president’s A.I. framework” published last week. He did not mention crypto in that interview.
The new PCAST roster reads like a who’s who of big-tech and venture capital: Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Dell founder Michael Dell, early Coinbase backer Fred Ehrsam, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg are among the initial members Sacks referenced. Michael Kratsios — who has served in both of Trump’s administrations — will join Sacks as co-chair.
For the crypto industry, Sacks’s move is a mixed signal. He brings direct crypto-policy experience to a powerful advisory body that influences White House science and tech strategy, but his public statements so far emphasize AI and other technologies rather than crypto. Given PCAST’s influence, however, the council’s recommendations could still shape the administration’s approach to digital assets and related regulation going forward.
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