Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Golem (@web3_golem)
"Crypto Czar" David Sacks is leaving. David Sacks explained that he is stepping down from his relevant positions because he has reached the 130-day limit for special government employees. In the future, he will continue to participate in related government affairs as the co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
On December 6, 2024, Trump announced the appointment of David Sacks as the White House lead for Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency affairs. Because Trump directly referred to him as the "White House A.I. & Crypto Czar," David Sacks earned the title "Crypto Czar." This is not a formal official title, but rather a role to facilitate the formalization of David Sacks's influence. In his appointment letter, Trump specifically expressed his expectations for David Sacks in the crypto field: "to promote the establishment of a clear legal framework, providing the long-needed clarity for the cryptocurrency industry to thrive in the United States."
From a motivational perspective, in 2024, to gain the support of the U.S. crypto community, Trump made numerous crypto promises. Therefore, after successfully assuming the presidency, he needed a capable person to help him fulfill these promises. David Sacks was the policy executor chosen by Trump.
David Sacks indeed lived up to Trump's expectations, achieving some political successes during his 130-day tenure: banning CBDC, convening the first White House Crypto Summit, establishing the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, and facilitating the passage of the CLARITY Act, among others.
Trump's several promises to the crypto industry during his campaign were largely fulfilled by David Sacks, leading many to write his tenure as a victory narrative. Superficially, this seems true, but upon reviewing what David Sacks actually did for the crypto industry, there is a common characteristic—the political posturing was full, but the crypto industry's sense of gain was sparse.
During these 130 days, David Sacks was not reshaping the crypto industry; he was merely performing a crypto political show for Trump.
I. White House Crypto Summit = Trump Praise Fest
The highlight of this performance was the superficially sincere but actually full of flattery and empty slogans White House Crypto Summit.(Related reading:White House Cryptocurrency Summit: A Political Performance of Flattery and Sloganeering)
On March 7, 2025, David Sacks, representing Trump, invited a group of crypto companies and industry figures to the White House, including a16z partner Chris Dixon, Ripple CEO, Robinhood CEO, Strategy founder Michael Saylor, Coinbase CEO, among others. Several key U.S. government officials also spoke, including Trump and the Secretary of the Treasury.
Crypto figures going to Washington was not unheard of before, but previously, it was mostly for hearings, to be scolded, to explain whether they were scams or not. This time was different: the setting changed from the hearing room to the White House, the atmosphere shifted from tense confrontations to dignified photo ops. Crypto figures were treated as "honored guests" by the U.S. government for the first time. David Sacks sat next to Trump, like a general director responsible for cueing lines.
David Sacks sits to Trump's left at the White House Crypto Summit
What was said at such a high-level and highly anticipated government crypto meeting?
According to the records of an Odaily Planet Daily reporter who monitored the live broadcast that night, everyone spent the entire time praising Trump. The closed-door meeting, which was supposed to define the direction of crypto regulation for the next four years, did not release any substantive policy documents. Because the meeting content was too far from market expectations, the crypto market immediately fell after the summit concluded, according to OKX market data from that day.
This summit certainly had symbolic significance, but the problem was precisely that it had only symbolic significance. It performed Trump's alignment with crypto once again, but the things the industry most wanted—such as unified, stable, predictable regulatory boundaries, long-term rules that institutions could rely on to enter the market安心ly, and project teams not having to guess what new stance the SEC and CFTC would take tomorrow—still weren't truly delivered. The meeting was lively, emotions were high, but what ultimately landed on the industry was still just news-driven speculation.
Why was this meeting so empty? Because it wasn't part of the original plan. Trump's campaign promise was originally to establish a cryptocurrency committee, expecting crypto industry leaders to have direct, ongoing dialogue with the White House and the president. However, this failed to materialize for various reasons. So, a crypto summit was hastily arranged as compensation, with promises that it would be held continuously in the future. But so far, the White House has not held a second crypto meeting of the same level.
II. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve = Moving Bitcoin to a Different Drawer
The second major thing David Sacks pushed to implement, the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, if taken seriously, was not a performance but a magic trick.
A few hours before the White House Crypto Summit convened, Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve. However, after the news came out, the price of bitcoin fell. The core reason was that David Sacks explained that this strategic bitcoin reserve came from bitcoins previously confiscated by the U.S. government in criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, not from newly purchased bitcoins—not a single taxpayer dollar was spent.
Although the order authorized the Treasury and Commerce Departments to study "budget-neutral" strategies for additional coin purchases, it did not provide any clear timeline or scale for purchases. Therefore, the stance this Bitcoin Strategic Reserve showed the market was: I will not sell bitcoin anymore, but I will not buy bitcoin anymore either.
Trump signs the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve executive order
Did David Sacks handle this beautifully? For Trump, of course, it was beautiful—fulfilling a promise without spending a penny. But for the crypto industry, it again had only symbolic meaning. The market originally expected the U.S. government to step in and increase its bitcoin holdings, injecting liquidity and endorsement into the market. What they got was "moving the previously seized bitcoin to a different drawer."
III. The GENIUS Act is the Real Achievement
The GENIUS Act might be the real achievement of David Sacks as Crypto Czar.
On July 18, 2025, Trump formally signed the GENIUS Act into law in the White House East Room. It has not only symbolic significance but also practical significance. From an industry impact perspective, the GENIUS Act establishes a federal framework for USD stablecoins, meaning stablecoins have moved out of the wild growth phase and into the compliance realm, becoming a new financial tool backed by the force of federal law.
This was not accomplished by David Sacks alone, but he certainly deserves credit. However, there is another bill, the twin of the GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act, which is still struggling. The CLARITY Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives alongside the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025, but until now, it has failed to complete the Senate process, remaining stuck in a negotiation deadlock between the banking industry and the crypto industry.
Trump signs the GENIUS Act
David Sacks once confidently stated that both the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act would be passed within the first 100 days of this administration. Currently, it seems he has been severely proven wrong.
The blockage of the CLARITY Act isn't solely David Sacks's fault, but he certainly bears some responsibility, just as he could claim some credit for the passage of the GENIUS Act. David Sacks's White House Digital Assets Working Group explicitly called the CLARITY Act an "excellent foundation." Since the White House has already regarded it as the core draft for market structure legislation, can David Sacks be a completely unrelated bystander when it gets stuck later?
The core deadlock of the bill centers on the conflict between the banking industry and the crypto industry over stablecoin interest-bearing. Judging from the latest revised text, the banks have won. Upon this news, on March 25, Circle (CRCL) stock price fell 18% at one point, and Coinbase (COIN) fell about 8%. Moreover, if such a CLARITY Act were truly passed, it would be a blow to the entire DeFi. (Related reading:CLARITY Act Rewrites DeFi's Life and Death Ledger: Circle Eats the Meat, DeFi Tokens Lose Blood)
This is quite different from the script Trump and David Sacks originally touted as beneficial to the crypto industry. It's truly ironic that a bill purportedly promoting the development of the crypto industry ultimately benefits banks, not the crypto industry.
On March 4, Trump, amidst his busy schedule, still found time to mention the crypto industry, posting on Truth Social that the U.S. must pass the CLARITY Act as soon as possible, and Americans should get higher returns on their funds. It seemed like Trump was still concerned about the crypto industry, but only after the latest revised text of the bill was revealed on March 24 did we see clearly that it was again a statement of "symbolic significance."
Now, the "Crypto President" Trump has completely gone silent. As for David Sacks, the White House had already written the script for him: as the Crypto Czar, stand in the spotlight and translate Trump's campaign slogan of "making America the global crypto capital" into a few decent political actions. Once the show was mostly over, it was time to retreat. Now, David Sacks, as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, stated that he will continue to work on AI policy and technology strategy in the future, not even mentioning crypto.
The former Crypto Czar is gone, and Trump's ambiguous relationship with cryptocurrency has ended.
