Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has demanded that David Sacks, President Donald Trump's Crypto Czar, prove he isn't "directly profiting off of the Trump Administration’s efforts to selectively pump the value of certain crypto assets."
The Massachusetts senator laid out her concerns about a conflict of interest in a 6-page letter she made public Friday morning, just hours ahead of a planned crypto summit at the White House.
Earlier this week, Sacks said he sold all his crypto assets before beginning in his role as crypto czar. He was appointed in early December.
"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," Warren wrote, referring to venture firm that Sacks founded, "and whether people close to you 'may have held positions and sold into the recent price surge.'”
Just last night, President Trump signed an executive order to establish a Bitcoin reserve. Sacks shared the announcement on X, formerly Twitter, promising that the effort would not "cost the taxpayers a dime.”
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is sitting just above $90,000. The BTC price slid last night, sinking below $85,000, after the president signed his Bitcoin reserve executive order.
The order authorizes the government to keep Bitcoin that's been seized seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases—but it doesn't explicitly give the government permission to spend federal funds on buying BTC. While some investors see it as a long-term bullish signal, others remain wary of how the government plans to manage its holdings.
Ethical questions have broadly swirled around President Trump's crypto policies, and not just Sacks’ appointment.
Several Web3 industry players criticized the president's announcement last week that the U.S.’ strategic crypto reserve would include Bitcoin as well as four other cryptocurrencies. Crypto holders and executives demanded that the Trump administration clarify how each token was marked for inclusion in the reserve.
Meanwhile, industry experts and lawmakers have raised ethical concerns over Trump's own foray into cryptocurrencies, including the launch of the president's meme coin, Official Trump, and the Trump Organization-owned DeFi project World Liberty Financial.
Sacks, a former PayPal executive, belongs to a close circle of executives that includes prominent Trump allies such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Former President Joe Biden and political experts have raised concerns over the growing influence of tech moguls in President Trump's administration.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.