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

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.

This revelation came on March 5 by White House counsel David Warrington.

Among the divestitures: Sacks ditched his stakes in Coinbase and Robinhood, as well as his limited-partner shares in crypto funds Multicoin Capital and Blockchain Capital.

Craft Ventures followed suit, selling off its own interests in Multicoin Capital and Bitwise Asset Management.

Sacks has repeatedly insisted he’s not into crypto anymore—at least not since becoming the White House’s crypto czar. He even made a point of addressing it directly on March 3, responding to a tweet by VC reporter George Hammond.

“Correct. I sold all my cryptocurrency (including BTC, ETH, and SOL) prior to the start of the administration,” he clarified on X (formerly Twitter).

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren 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 value of $15 billion.

Those followers? They lost billions. Official Trump is currently down about 83.5% of its value from its all-time high. See below.

A recent Financial Times investigation shows the project raising at least $350 million in the first three weeks post-launch. Despite claims that it’s “not distributed or sold by Donald Trump or his affiliates,” the memecoin’s real backers seem to be Trump’s subsidiary, CIC Digital, and Fight Fight Fight LLC, which own 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 raised $550 million in a token sale, pushing its total funding close to $600 million so far. So far, it has secured $550 million by selling its WLFI tokens, data from ICO Drops shows.

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.

Buddying up to Binance?

Binance is reportedly 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, rbeagan looking to reestablish a presence in the U.S. market.

It remains unclear whether the stake would be contingent on a pardon for Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Recall how Binance’s recent brush with the law. The company, which has no official headquarters, ran into significant legal trouble over allegations of money laundering and regulatory violations.

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

On Mar. 7, 2025, crypto investor and Wolf of All Streets podcast host Scott Melker dedicated a huge part of his Wolf Den newsletter to the meaning of the Bitcoin reserve launch and the public reaction to it. Later that day, he added several statements via his X account, explaining the importance of this historic event.

The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve creation

Donald Trump promised the launch of the Bitcoin stockpile during his speech in the summer of 2024 at the Nashville Bitcoin conference. Around the same time, Sen. Cynthia Lummis introduced the BTC reserve bill, which suggested that the U.S. should acquire one million bitcoins over five years. 

Expectations were high. Crypto X was full of posts with hopes that Trump would sign the Bitcoin reserve creation order right after the inauguration. The reality turned out to be less thrilling as Trump didn’t even mention crypto in his inauguration speech. However, he pardoned Ross Ulbricht of Silk Road, which he promised to do. The Bitcoin reserve plans were confirmed later, and Sen. Lummis joined the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets as a chair. 

On Mar. 6, the executive order to establish a Bitcoin reserve was signed. The reserve turned out to be different from the one Lummis proposed. Its spirit is much closer to the initial Trump vision of a stockpile made up of the seized bitcoins that the government will not sell. The reserve will be growing via seizures and forfeitures so that it will not use the taxpayers’ money. More than that, the reserve can be increased using other avenues not associated with taxes. 

Currently, the U.S. is holding around 200k bitcoins. The accurate amount is not clear yet, so the government is conducting an audit. The Digital Assets Stockpile was created on the same date. This one will include other cryptocurrencies, namely ETH, ADA, SOL, and XRP. Some allege there is a possibility for a conflict of interest as White House crypto czar David Sacks may indirectly profit from creating the reserve of these cryptocurrencies. Sacks denies these accusations.

Following the creation of the Bitcoin Reserve, the BTC price dropped by $5,000, while the creation of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has always been perceived as a trigger that will let bulls out. Scott Melker explained why the price dropped and why the move was great despite the criticisms.

The price drop explained

Scott Melker decisively associates the price drop with the disappointment from those who were expecting that the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve launch would be followed by buying Bitcoin in large amounts.

Melker starts his message in the newsletter with “we did it,” calling recognizing Bitcoin as a strategic asset”[America’s] biggest move yet in the Bitcoin game.” From the start, Melker states that other countries will have to follow suit in the Bitcoin race. He stresses that the U.S. will barely tolerate being second after China in terms of the BTC reserve. As of now, the U.S. reserve may be less than the Chinese one. It sets the stage for the global Bitcoin race that will move the price up in the long term.

Further, Melker explains that the difference between the Digital Assets Stockpile and the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve indicates that the U.S. explicitly considers Bitcoin the only cryptocurrency fitting the criteria of a strategic asset worth finding potential acquisition avenues.

“While some critics argue this doesn’t immediately impact the market because the government isn’t actively buying Bitcoin yet, they’re missing the long-term significance. The U.S. just signaled that Bitcoin is here to stay as a key financial asset, and history tells us that when America sets the standard, the rest of the world follows”.

El Salvador, the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, recently reversed its decision after pressure from the IMF. What led to this change, and what were the outcomes of its nearly four-year crypto experiment?

The curious case of El Salvador

The 2021 law in El Salvador made Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender, meaning it became not just legal but mandatory for transactions. Merchants were required to accept Bitcoin, and the government started collecting payments such as taxes and fees in Bitcoin.

To facilitate this, the country launched the Chivo wallet, a government-backed mobile app designed to help Salvadorans transact with Bitcoin. The app allowed users to send, receive, and store Bitcoin, and even offered an incentive of $30 in Bitcoin for those who downloaded it.

However, the law didn’t affect the status of the U.S. dollar, which had been the official currency of El Salvador from 2001 to 2021. This meant Salvadorans who didn’t want to use Bitcoin could still use USD for all transactions. Polls from 2021 showed that only 15% of the population trusted Bitcoin, and 70% of respondents opposed its adoption.

Despite President Nayib Bukele’s media campaign and public relations efforts, the law failed to convince many Salvadorans of its value.

While the international crypto community lauded the El Salvadoran law, the residents of the country protested the law on the streets, and many in the financial world criticized the legislation’s flaws. 

One key issue was that many merchants across the country were not equipped to accept Bitcoin, and the law did not address this gap.

Furthermore, a large portion of the population lacked bank accounts, and many businesses still only accepted cash payments. Many merchants were also reluctant to accept Bitcoin due to its volatility, fearing that its fluctuating value could lead to losses.

What are the results of the El Salvador Bitcoin experiment?

The nearly four-year period during which Bitcoin was legal tender in El Salvador has yielded mostly negative results, though there are a few positives to note.

On the positive side, the 2021 Bitcoin adoption helped expose more people to cryptocurrencies. A measurable outcome was the boom in tourism. The announcement of Bitcoin’s adoption piqued international interest, leading to a 20% increase in tourist arrivals in 2024 compared to 2023, with growth also seen in previous years.

However, the broader impact has been largely negative. Bitcoin failed to serve as a hedge against inflation in El Salvador. Issues such as its extreme volatility and technical difficulties with the Chivo wallet are often cited as reasons for the public’s reluctance to use Bitcoin.

Additionally, multiple hacking incidents involving the Chivo wallet further eroded trust in the cryptocurrency, leading to its limited use.

The Bitcoin law also fell short of significantly improving financial inclusion. In 2021, approximately 70% of Salvadorans were unbanked, and an even larger percentage had never used Bitcoin.

In fact, most people in the country largely ignored the digital currency. By 2024, a report from The Central American Group indicated that 92% of Salvadorans did not use Bitcoin for transactions.

While Bitcoin was intended to facilitate cross-border payments, it had little impact in this regard. In 2023, only 1.3% of remittances were made using Bitcoin. A 2022 survey also revealed that 86% of local businesses had no Bitcoin transactions, and 91.7% of respondents said Bitcoin adoption had not affected them. Only 3.6% reported an improvement in sales.

One of the key flaws in the Bitcoin adoption strategy was the timing. The law was enacted in 2021, a year following a major crypto rally fueled by Bitcoin’s halving.

Historically, bull markets are followed by downturns, and the law was passed just before another crypto winter began. The sharp Bitcoin crash in 2022 only served to further discourage Salvadorans from using the currency.

How did the El Salvador Bitcoin experiment end?

Since 2022, the International Monetary Fund has urged El Salvador to amend its Bitcoin law. On January 30, 2025, the Salvadoran Congress took action, agreeing to revise the law in exchange for a $1.4 billion loan from the IMF.

One key condition for securing the loan was the removal of Bitcoin’s legal tender status in the country. The loan agreement stipulates that “public sector engagement in Bitcoin-related economic activities, transactions, and purchases will be limited.”

While reports suggest that Bitcoin will remain legal for trade among Salvadorans, it will no longer be accepted for taxes or other government payments, and businesses will have the right to refuse Bitcoin payments.

The requirement for all businesses to accept Bitcoin had faced stark criticism due to the BTC’s volatility and the public’s limited understanding of digital currencies. The new legislative reform also addresses these concerns by giving businesses the option to choose whether or not to accept Bitcoin

However, the full scope of these restrictions is yet to be fully determined, and further details are expected soon.

The IMF loan will be disbursed over a period of 40 months, meaning these restrictions will be enforced over a three-year span, potentially leading to a long-term decline in Bitcoin’s role in the country.

Despite the shift in policy to secure the IMF loan, El Salvador’s government appears to maintain its pro-crypto stance. On Feb. 4, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office reported purchasing a total of 12 BTC through two separate transactions.

The first acquisition involved 11 BTC, purchased for approximately $1.1 million, at an average price of $101,816 per Bitcoin. The second purchase added 1 BTC at a price of $99,114, just hours later.

These recent acquisitions bring the country’s total Bitcoin reserves to 6,068 BTC, valued at over $592 million at the time of writing. El Salvador has continued to accumulate Bitcoin steadily, having added 60 BTC over the past month alone.