Trump officials did not respond when asked to clarify whether the fresh position would be in the government or whether Sacks would serve as a “special government employee,” which would allow him to continue to serve in other roles in the private sector. Sacks did not respond to a request for comment.
Sacks first rose to fame as an early employee of the payments technology company PayPal, which he built with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman and others. Like other members of the so-called “PayPal mafia,” Sacks has started numerous other business ventures. In 2012, he sold the workplace software company Yammer to Microsoft a deal worth $1.2 billion. He currently runs his own venture capital firm, Craft Ventures, which has previously invested at companies like AirBnb, Palantir and Slack, as well as crypto companies BitGo and Bitwise.
Sacks also co-hosts the popular event Everything in a podcast in which he used the platform to empower Trump. He has also shared a number of right-wing views: At a September podcast summit, Sacks questioned the effectiveness Covid vaccine.
Like Musk, Sacks was a vocal supporter of Trump during the presidential race. In Post X in June, he offered his Silicon Valley-like rationale: “Voters have experienced four years of President Trump and four years of President Biden. In technology, we call this an A/B test,” he wrote. “When it comes to economic policy, foreign policy, border policy and legal justice, Trump did better. This is a president who deserves a second term.”
In the same month, Sacks organized an exclusive fundraiser to the Trump campaign, which reportedly generated as much as $12 million. Participants reportedly included Vice President-elect J.D. Vance – who previously described Sacks as “one of my closest friends in the tech world” – and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, co-founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.
In the weeks since Trump regained the Oval Office, cryptocurrency markets have been in shambles. During the race, the president-elect made a number of cryptocurrency-friendly promises, including a pledge to create a national “Bitcoin stockpile.” In Sacks, Trump has chosen a czar who the crypto industry believes will deliver on his campaign promises.
December 6 bitcoin price exceeded the amount of $100,000 for the first time. “YOU’RE WELCOME!!! [sic]Trump sent on the Social Truth website.