Update (Dec. 10, 7:00 am UTC): This article has been updated to reflect that David Sacks and Craft Ventures have indirect exposure to Solana through investment in Multicoin Capital.
Ex-PayPal exec David Sacks, the designated “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar” of United States President-elect Donald Trump, is a major Solana bull and a backer of the crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital.
Sacks, a former PayPal operating chief and current co-host of the All-In business and technology podcast, was appointed by Trump on Dec. 5.
Apart from his interest in crypto and artificial intelligence, Sacks is known as an indirect investor in Solana (SOL) and other crypto-related ventures.
In October 2021, in the 50th episode of All-In, Sacks publicly disclosed exposure to Solana through an investment in the SOL-related venture capital firm Multicoin Capital.
Sacks then referred to SOL as the “biggest turnaround” in late 2023, saying that he didn’t sell SOL following the collapse of FTX, which was linked to Solana due to its high exposure to SOL.
Sacks denies dumping SOL on retail post-FTX
In December 2023, in the 159th episode of All-In, Sacks highlighted 92% annual SOL returns, denying rumors that he had dumped any SOL holdings.
David Sacks denied dumping SOL in late 2023. Source: YouTube
“In light of the fact that various unscrupulous actors on the internet accused some of us of buying Solana at a discount and dumping it on retail without any evidence, that wasn’t true,” Sacks said in December 2023. He added:
“Let’s just say that those of us who are still holding bags of Solana are very happy campers right now.”
“Crypto czar” talked about Solana flipping Ethereum in 2021
The presumed US crypto czar has made some bold statements about Solana, highlighting SOL’s potential as an Ethereum competitor and a powerful smart contract platform.
In the 50th All-In podcast episode in 2021, Sacks mentioned Solana’s potential to overtake Ethereum as the preferred blockchain platform:
“There’s a lot of people, I’d say, smart money in Silicon Valley who are betting on a flipping where Solana could ultimately overtake Ethereum as the preferred platform.”
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He said that even if Solana doesn’t flip Ethereum, SOL was still the seventh-biggest crypto asset by market value at the time, with a potential to rise higher.
Top five cryptocurrency assets by market capitalization. Source: CoinGecko
Solana was the fifth-largest crypto asset at the time of writing, with a market cap of $111 billion, following Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) and XRP (XRP), according to CoinGecko.
Sacks invested in Multicoin Capital in 2018
Founded in 2017, Multicoin Capital is a Texas-based firm targeting investments in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies across the US. It is highly focused on Solana.
Sacks invested significantly in Multicoin in 2018 alongside several investors, including venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, Coinbase backer Elad Gil, BlockTower Capital co-founder Ari Paul and others.
“They are not just traders but technologists who know how to evaluate emerging technology in an extremely fluid and rapidly evolving space. We’ve learned a tremendous amount from them,” Sacks wrote in a post on why he invested in Multicoin as a Craft Ventures co-founder and general partner.
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