Bitcoin prices fell to their lowest level in nearly a month on Friday after David Sachs confirmed he was stepping down as President Donald Trump’s “czar of AI and cryptocurrencies,” adding to concerns about the policy outlook for the digital asset.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to $65,720, its lowest price since March 2nd, before recovering slightly to around $65,804, a daily decline of more than 4% and dragging down the entire cryptocurrency market. More than $500 million in crypto positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours, with nearly 90% hitting long traders, according to derivatives tracker Coinglass, indicating that overleveraged bullish bets have been forced out en masse. Ethereum (ETH) fell about 4% to about $1,980, Solana (SOL) fell 5% to less than $83, and BNB fell 3% to about $608, while highly exposed crypto stocks like MicroStrategy and Bitmine Immersion Technologies also hit one-month lows.
Bitcoin price falls as White House crypto czar announces resignation
The stock selloff comes as Sachs, a venture capitalist and co-host of the All In podcast, acknowledged that his tenure as President Trump’s point man on AI and cryptocurrencies is over, having “exhausted” the 130 days of service allowed for special government employees. President Trump first appointed Sachs as the “White House AI and Crypto Czar” in December 2024, saying the PayPal veteran would guide the administration’s policy in “artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies, two areas critical to America’s future competitiveness,” and work on a legal framework that allows the industry to “thrive in America.” “President Trump is clearly a world leader in both areas,” Sachs said, later claiming that his administration’s stance has brought the United States “one step closer” to becoming the “crypto capital of the world.”
Sachs’ departure does not signal a major shift away from cryptocurrencies, but it does create uncertainty about the degree of cohesion the White House will maintain on digital asset rules. As co-chair of the President’s Science and Technology Advisory Council, he will move away from the day-to-day cryptocurrency rule-making that has made him a mainstay of the industry, to a broader role overseeing a broader “technology dominance strategy.” During his tenure, he repeatedly linked regulatory clarity to market structure, telling audiences that “the purpose of the law is essentially to ensure stability” and warning that if the industry continues to fear “the next Gensler,” investment will remain volatile and transitory.
Bitcoin’s intraday drop to the mid-$65,000s is modest compared to the more than 30% drawdowns seen in past cycles, but it comes against a backdrop of deteriorating macro sentiment, simultaneous declines in major U.S. stock indexes, and renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The Nasdaq fell about 1.5%, and the S&P 500 and Dow Jones fell about 1% as investors digested rising oil prices and headlines about Israel “escalating” its attacks on Iran following the missile attack, even after President Trump signaled a halt to attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure. “Global markets are reassessing macro risks at a faster pace,” BitGet CEO Gracie Chen said, adding that Bitcoin is likely to “maintain high volatility in the short term,” but that lower leverage means the recent drawdown looks more like a “repositioning reset” than a chain of liquidations in the past.
The market will now test how much of a “policy premium” was built into Bitcoin during Sachs’ time in the West Wing. At the time, President Trump’s pivot from crypto skeptic to industry promoter coincided with Bitcoin wealth breaking into six-figure territory. The former PayPal executive has been a key driver of the legislative push on Capitol Hill, publicly thanking Senate Agriculture Committee leaders after passing a major market structure bill by a narrow 12-11 margin, saying the decision “brings us one step closer to establishing the regulatory framework needed to make the United States the capital of the crypto world.” For now, opinions seem to be divided among prediction market traders. Users in one market currently believe there is a roughly 64% chance that Bitcoin’s next big move will fall to $55,000 instead of up to $84,000. This suggests that in the absence of a clear policy manager like Mr. Sachs, price discovery is driven by macro cross-currents rather than by the White House alone.
