Pro-Trump techies enraged by president’s crypto reserve announcement, causing early rift
David Sacks, U.S. President Donald Trump’s “AI and Crypto Czar”, speaks to President Trump as he signs a series of executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
The Trump-tech alliance is showing its first real sign of distress. And it’s because of crypto.
President Donald Trump counted on crypto execs and investors for a hefty portion of his 2024 campaign funds. He promised to reward them handsomely if elected by slashing regulations and by turning the U.S. into “the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.”
The president got off to a quick start, signing an executive order calling for the establishment of a working group on digital assets and pardoning Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. The SEC also dropped its years-long probe into Coinbase.
While those moves were lauded by the most vocal techies who backed Trump’s candidacy, over the weekend the president took it a step too far in their view. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump announced the creation of a strategic crypto reserve for the U.S. that would include not just bitcoin but several other digital currencies — ether, XRP, Solana’s SOL token and Cardano’s ADA.
For the most part, Trump’s crypto backers all wanted a strategic bitcoin reserve. Such a move would entail using cash to buy bitcoin, which is widely viewed by crypto enthusiasts as a smart way to deploy capital into a decentralized currency that’s an alternative to hard money. As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on X, bitcoin offers a “clear story as successor to gold.”
By going well beyond bitcoin, the critics say, Trump would be using U.S. taxpayer money to buy much riskier assets that have unproven value and have the potential to bolster the net worth of a select few investors who own the coins. That’s all the more problematic to those who want to axe government spending by trillions of dollars, in support of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting mission at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“Taxation is theft,” wrote Joe Lonsdale, founder of venture firm 8VC and a vocal Trump supporter, in a post on X. “It should be kept to a minimum. It’s wrong to steal my money for grift on the left; it’s also wrong to tax me for crypto bro schemes.”
David Sacks, the venture capitalist who was tapped by Trump to be the “White House AI and crypto czar,” took exception to Lonsdale’s comment, suggesting it’s premature to jump to any conclusions. Sacks and Lonsdale are part of the same conservative circle in the tech world, with Musk and Peter Thiel at the center.
“Nobody announced a tax or a spending program,” Sacks wrote, in response to Lonsdale’s post. “Maybe you should wait to find out what’s actually being proposed.”
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But Lonsdale was far from alone.
Naval Ravikant, a longtime tech investor and early crypto evangelist, wrote after the announcement that, “The US taxpayer should not be exit liquidity for cryptocurrencies that are decentralized in name only.” And Vinny Lingham, creator of blockchain startup Civic and a big crypto influencer, wrote, “Call me old fashioned but I don’t think the government should be pumping our crypto bags with taxpayer money while we are running a near $2trn deficit.”
Agreement across the industry
A major Trump supporter and big name in crypto joined the chorus on Monday. Billionaire bitcoin investor Tyler Winklevoss, who wrote just before the November election that you should vote for Trump “if you care about the future of crypto, free speech, justice, liberty, and democracy,” came out against the president’s crypto reserve plan.
“I have nothing against XRP, SOL, or ADA but I do not think they are suitable for a Strategic Reserve,” Winklevoss wrote. “Only one digital asset in the world right now meets the bar and that digital asset is bitcoin.”
David Marcus, the former head of Facebook’s failed crypto project, suggested that the majority of his peers in the crypto community have the same view.
“Most—if not all—of the non-conflicted industry leaders are agreeing about this,” Marcus wrote, in reposting Winklevoss’ comment.
Marcus, who’s now CEO of payments infrastructure startup Lightspark, declared in July that he was “crossing the Rubicon” and shifting his support to Trump and away from Democrats.
Anthony Pompliano, a loud pro-Trump voice in crypto investing, committed over 1,500 words in his newsletter on Monday to the topic. He says Trump is willing to propose an agenda of buying risky tokens on behalf of the U.S. because the wrong people got to him.
“We watched crypto projects, lobbyists, and special interest groups co-opt the President of the United States,” Pompliano wrote. “They told the President that any crypto-related reserve should hold tokens that were ‘made in America.’ This pitch was the perfect trap for a President who ran on the America First agenda.”
Some of the wrath online was directed specifically at Sacks, who touted and backed various cryptocurrencies as a VC prior to joining the Trump administration, and whose firm, Craft Ventures, is an investor in crypto index fund manager Bitwise.
A cartoon image of US President-elect Donald Trump with cryptocurrency tokens, depicted in front of the White House to mark his inauguration, displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sacks wrote in a post on X that he sold all of his crypto, including bitcoin, ether and SOL, before taking on his new role and “will provide an update at the end of the ethics process.”
By late afternoon Monday, crypto prices had staged a dramatic reversal from their weekend rally that followed Trump’s announcement. Bitcoin fell about 9%, while ether slid 15%. XRP and SOL dropped even more.
The slide appeared tied to President Trump’s confirmation of forthcoming tariffs, which hammered risky assets across the board and sent the Nasdaq down almost 3% at the close of trading.
There were some voices in crypto who were less willing to publicly slam Trump’s reserve plan.
Michael Saylor, the chairman of Strategy, which has effectively emerged as a bitcoin proxy due to its roughly $43 billion stash, told CNBC on Monday that he wasn’t surprised about Trump’s decision to include additional cryptocurrencies.
“There’s no way to interpret this other than this is bullish for bitcoin and bullish for the entire U.S. crypto industry,” Saylor said. “I believe the best thing for the country is to move forward with an enlightened progressive policy toward digital assets.”
Jonathan Jachym, global head of policy and government relations at Kraken, told CNBC that the crypto exchange is “encouraged to see that announcement” and that it shows the president is “staying true to commitments.”
Even among the skeptics, Trump doesn’t appear to be losing broader support for his agenda just because of this one announcement. Backers like Lonsdale have been quick to post about other matters, complimenting actions taken by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump for pressuring Mexican drug cartels.
But coming just six weeks into Trump’s second administration, the reaction shows how quickly the outrage machine can activate when a proposal touches the nerve of a critical group of supporters. The debate adds interest to Trump’s first White House Crypto Summit on Friday, when investors will eagerly be awaiting more details.
As Sacks wrote on March 2, in his first post about the announcement of the strategic reserve, “More to come at the Summit.”
With the federal EV incentive set to expire at the end of September, Ford is urging its dealers to prepare for a rush of buyers.
Ford warns dealers of upcoming EV rush
Like most automakers, Ford is preparing for a shakeup under the Trump Administration. After the “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law on July 4, the $7,500 and $4,000 tax credit for new and used EVs will no longer be available after September 30.
In a memo sent to dealers this week, Ford warned, “demand is expected to increase as the deadline approaches for eligible vehicles.”
The letter (via CarsDirect) confirmed that the EV tax credit “will no longer be available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.”
Ford blamed Trump’s new bill for the expected rush of EV buyers ahead of the incentive deadline. Although the Mustang Mach-E doesn’t qualify for the credit, since it’s built in Mexico, Ford is passing it on through a leasing loophole. While it’s still available, the F-150 Lightning does qualify for the credit when purchased or leased.
Last week, Ford launched its new “Zero, Zero, Zero” summer sales promo, offering a $0 down payment, 0% interest for 48 months, and zero payments for the first 90 days on most Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
The new campaign replaces the employee pricing for all campaign, which ran through the first half of the year. Despite outpacing the industry with overall sales rising 14% in Q2, Ford’s EV sales fell by nearly a third.
Ford spokesperson Martin Gunsberg told Electrek that electric vehicle sales were lower due to the Mustang Mach-E recall and the transition to the 2025 model year. “Our dealers can’t sell what they don’t have,” Gunsberg said.
Although the Mach-E doesn’t qualify for the credit when purchased, it’s still one of the best EV lease deals available right now, starting at $395 per month. The offer is for 36 months with no down payment required.
Ford isn’t the only one preparing for big changes over the next few months. Honda extended its ultra-low lease offer on the Prologue until the end of September. Hyundai and Kia are slashing prices with generous discounts ahead of the deadline. The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 might be the best EV deal at just $179 per month right now.
Looking to snag the savings while they are still available? You can use our links below to find deals on top-selling electric vehicles in your area.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Environment
Tesla engineer admits Tesla didn’t maintain Autopilot crash records amid trial over fatal crash
A Tesla engineer admitted in court that Tesla didn’t maintain Autopilot crash records before 2018, 3 years after launching the ADAS system, in a trial over the death of a bystander in a crash involving Autopilot.
Tesla is currently on trial in Miami over a crash involving a 2019 Tesla Model S that was operating on Autopilot.
The case attempts to place some responsibility on Tesla for creating complacency with drivers, who were led to believe Autopilot could do more than it actually could.
George McGee was driving his Model S on Autopilot in Key Largo in April 2019 when he dropped his phone and looked down to pick it up when the car blew past a stop sign at a T intersection, and crashed into a parked Chevrolet Tahoe.
22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo were standing next to the parked Tahoe. Benavides died and Angulo was seriously injured.
The police charged McGee with reckless driving, but the families of the victims sued both McGee and Tesla. McGee settled with the plaintiffs, but Tesla hasn’t.
The automaker has been sued many times over fatal crashes related to its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. Recently, Tesla settled a few of those lawsuits, but this one is the first to make it to trial.
The plaintiffs allege that Tesla’s communications regarding Autopilot have led drivers, such as McGee, to become complacent and use Autopilot in a manner that led to this crash. They also claim that Tesla misrepresented the safety of Autopilot and failed to deploy proper driver monitoring to ensure its safe use.
The trial started on Monday and on Thursday, the jury heard testimony from Tesla software engineer Akshay Phatak who said that Tesla didn’t even complete records of Autopilot crashes before March 2018 (via Law360):
At the end of the first day of testimony, jurors watched part of the videotaped deposition of Tesla software engineer Akshay Phatak in which he said Tesla did not maintain records before March 2018 for evaluating whether it was safer to operate Tesla vehicles with the autopilot engaged or shut off.
When asked if Tesla maintained records or data before 2018 that kept track of the number of crashes that occurred per vehicle mile driven with the autopilot engaged, he replied simply, “No.”
That’s despite Tesla launching Autopilot almost 3 years prior. The jury will hear more of Phatak’s deposition today after Tesla attempted to keep it out of court over claims that it contains “sensitive trade secrets.”
Plaintiffs also challenged Tesla’s Autopilot safety report. We previously highlighted how Tesla suddenly stopped reporting the statistics and only started again a year later, while updating older data.
Dr. Mendel Singer testified on Tuesday and highlighted the discrepancy:
He noted that Tesla offered corrections to the vehicle safety report in January 2023 after finding some errors and miscounts. The crash data for when the autopilot was on stayed about the same, but the crash rate for when the autopilot was off went up by about 50% in the updated report, he said.
Mary Cummings, a professor and director of the Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University and a longtime critic of Tesla’s self-driving efforts, is expected to testify today.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
General Motors and Redwood Materials are joining forces to take EV battery tech beyond the road and onto the grid. The two companies just signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding that sets the stage for turning both new and second-life GM batteries into energy storage systems to support the US’s rising electricity demand.
The collaboration aims to help the grid keep up with the surge in power-hungry applications, from AI data centers to electrified transport and industry.
“The market for grid-scale batteries and backup power isn’t just expanding, it’s becoming essential infrastructure,” said Kurt Kelty, GM’s VP of batteries, propulsion, and sustainability. “Electricity demand is climbing, and it’s only going to accelerate… GM batteries can play an integral role.”
Redwood launched a new venture in June called Redwood Energy that repurposes both new and used EV battery packs into fast and cost-effective energy storage systems. Today’s announcement allows Redwood to use second-life batteries from GM EVs and new GM battery modules to create US-built energy storage systems.
This isn’t just a future plan – it’s already happening. GM’s repurposed EV batteries are currently powering the biggest second-life battery project in the world. Located in Sparks, Nevada, Redwood’s 12MW/63MWh installation is also the largest microgrid in North America and supports Crusoe, an AI infrastructure company.
“Electricity demand is accelerating at an unprecedented pace,” said JB Straubel, Redwood’s founder and CEO. “Both GM’s second-life EV batteries and new batteries can be deployed in Redwood’s energy storage systems, delivering fast, flexible power solutions.”
And the timing couldn’t be better. AI data centers alone are expected to triple their share of US electricity use, from 4.4% in 2023 to 12% by 2028. That’s driving the urgent need for scalable, domestic energy storage.
GM and Redwood Materials say they’ll share more details on their plans later this year.
Read more: Arizona brings a huge grid battery online ahead of peak demand
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike