David Sacks, the White House’s senior advisor on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, stated Tuesday that the US government has a legal path to acquire more Bitcoin under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 conference during a fireside chat with Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Sacks explained that although he could not guarantee federal purchases of Bitcoin, the executive order permits an acquisition, if done in a manner “that does not increase the national debt or require new taxes.”
Crypto Czar says US government can buy Bitcoin
According to Sacks, the executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve only allowed the US to use Bitcoin held by the government from criminal or civil asset forfeitures. Yet, the order’s language also authorizes future purchases contingent upon compliance with federal budgeting constraints.
“If it can be done in a budget-neutral way, specifically, if either the Commerce Department or the Treasury Department can figure out how to fund it without adding to the debt, then they are allowed to create those programs,” Sacks explained.
Cabinet secretaries like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent could greenlight such acquisitions should they find unused funds from existing federal programs.
“I can’t promise anything,” Sacks said, “but there is a pathway to doing that… if they can figure out how to fund it, they actually do have presidential authorization ready.”
AI, Bitcoin, and energy
When asked about what the Trump administration has planned for AI and cryptocurrency in the next 100 days, Sacks told the Winklevoss twins that one of the President’s primary agendas is to improve America’s energy sector.
Drawing a parallel between AI’s dependence on GPU-powered data centers and Bitcoin mining’s reliance on ASIC machines, he stressed that the West needs a domestic energy expansion.
“You need electricity to power GPUs for AI data centers. And you need it for Bitcoin ASICs to generate hash power,” he said. “We need a lot more power to basically fuel this future of AI and crypto.”
Sacks praised the administration’s energy stance, citing Trump’s push to expand US oil and gas production under the slogan “drill, baby, drill.”
“Beyond ‘drill, baby, drill,’ we need to build, baby, build,” he continued, “it just needs to be a lot easier in the United States.”
US crypto-focused executive actions
On President Trump’s first full day in office, he pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the convicted founder of Silk Road. Two days later, the administration issued an executive order prohibiting the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), formally ended Operation Choke Point 2.0, and launched the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets.
By March, Trump had signed the order to establish the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, treating Bitcoin as a national reserve asset for the first time in US history. Additionally, the White House hosted the inaugural Digital Assets Summit, the first time the crypto industry was formally acknowledged at such a level.
Crypto Czar David Sacks at Bitcoin 2025:“At the end of the day, we see that blockchain, Bitcoin, crypto, this is the financial system of the future.”"We want this innovation happening in the United States." $BTC $XRP $HBAR pic.twitter.com/ZzshYR17ZH
— ALLINCRYPTO (@RealAllinCrypto) May 28, 2025
The crypto czar hysterically talked about the administration’s choice to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Sacks referred to the agency as “Elizabeth Warren’s personal goon squad to terrorize crypto companies.”
“Under the Biden administration, and as we all kno,w Elizabeth Warren had the auto pen all this innovation was being driven offshore. It was being driven to other countries and that’s not the American way. We want this financial revolution happening in the United States. We want to be leading in this. We don’t want to be driving it offshore. It’s crazy,” he surmised.
