Jay Clayton, the former SEC chairman whose agency helped write the playbook for policing crypto through lawsuits, is reportedly on the verge of becoming President Donald Trump’s artificial intelligence czar, as CoinDesk’s Jesse Hamilton reports. The move, first reported by CNN, would put the administration’s new “AI Force” in the hands of a regulator the crypto industry remembers less than fondly.
Trump unveiled the AI Force on Truth Social in September, likening it to the Space Force from his first term, and promised to name an AI czar in the “near future” — a “high IQ” individual, in his words. Clayton, appointed this year as Trump’s director of national intelligence, previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
His crypto record is what makes the pick divisive. In 2017, Clayton launched the SEC’s “Cyber Unit” and began going after initial coin offerings (ICOs). By his 2020 exit, the agency tallied 57 cases against digital asset firms, blockchain businesses and ICOs — including a suit accusing Ripple Labs of failing to register some $1.3 billion in XRP tokens as securities. Current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins later dropped that case.
The “regulation-by-enforcement” approach the industry blamed on Biden-era chair Gary Gensler, Hamilton notes, “had its beginnings in Clayton’s tenure running the SEC.”
Unlike David Sacks, who juggled both the crypto and AI portfolios before leaving his crypto role in March, Clayton appears headed for an AI-only job. White House crypto efforts are now led by adviser Patrick Witt.
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Clayton also brings private-sector AI ties: he spent several years on the board of Apollo Global Management, which has poured billions into AI and digital infrastructure. In a CNBC interview, he framed AI as a national security issue but rejected calls to pause its development. “I don’t think any American should think that that’s a good strategy,” he said
