David Sacks, the “czar” of AI and crypto under President Donald Trump, and his venture-capital firm, Craft Ventures

According to Bloomberg, citing a memo from the White House, Sacks and Craft liquidated their entire crypto portfolio—Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL)—before Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

President Donald Trump's go-to “czar” for AI and crypto, David Sacks, and his venture-capital firm, Craft Ventures, have recently sold a whopping $200 million worth of digital asset holdings.

According to Bloomberg, citing a White House counsel, David Warrington, on March 5 during a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sacks and Craft liquidated their entire crypto portfolio—Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and more—before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

This revelation came in response to inquiries from Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had also been pressing for Sacks to release his financial disclosures to the public. By divesting his crypto holdings before taking on the role of crypto adviser, Sacks is clearly distancing himself from any potential bias.

But Trump’s track record on the matter? That’s a different story.

Potential conflicts of interest

On the eve of his inauguration, Trump launched his very own memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP) — a token that has no utility. But that didn’t stop it from gaining a cult following and peaking at a staggering valuation of $15 billion. Sadly, those loyal followers are now nursing huge losses as the coin plummeted. It’s currently down about 83.5% from its all-time high.

Those who invested in the token lost billions after it crashed and burned.

According to a recent Financial Times investigation, the project managed to raise at least $350 million in the first three weeks following its launch. And despite claims that the token is “not distributed or sold by Donald Trump or his affiliates,” the subsidiary of Trump's company, CIC Digital, and Fight Fight Fight LLC appear to be the major backers of the memecoin, collectively holding a whopping 80% of the token.

Trump’s crypto ventures didn’t stop there. Last September, he launched World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform that peddles the WLFI token. His sons—Eric, Don Jr., and Barron—are all reportedly involved in the project.

This week, World Liberty Financial managed to raise $550 million in a token sale, pushing its total funding close to $600 million so far. Out of this sum, $550 million was secured through selling its WLFI tokens, according to data from ICO Drops.

Last month, crypto.news reported that World Liberty Financial sold over 24 billion tokens, leaving around 950 million tokens available for purchase.

It’s worth noting that, on March 6, Trump signed a second Executive Order to establish a U.S. Bitcoin reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile. At the time, Sacks downplayed the decision to include altcoins in the stockpile. He explained that it was a "political decision" to include anything other than BTC.

Buddying up to Binance?

Meanwhile, rumors have swirled that Binance is in talks with Trump and/or World Liberty Financial to sell a financial stake in its U.S. arm.

The discussions reportedly began after Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, began looking to reestablish a presence in the U.S. market following a turbulent period that saw it withdraw from the country in 2021.

According to Bitsonic Central, the rumors suggest that a pardon for Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao could be linked to the sale of a stake in the U.S. exchange. However, it remains unclear whether the stake would be contingent on a pardon or vice versa.

As for the pardon, it's no secret that Trump is known for granting pardons to those in legal trouble, and Zhao has certainly faced his fair share of legal woes recently. Binance has been the subject of several investigations by U.S. authorities for allegedly facilitating money laundering and flouting securities regulations.

However, under the Trump administration, cryptocurrency companies like Binance stand to benefit from relatively loose regulations compared to the Biden administration. So far, the Trump-appointed leadership of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has halted numerous investigations into crypto-related companies that began under President Joe Biden’s watch — including Binance.