Clayton, who did not respond to a message from CoinDesk, previously served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before being appointed this year as Trump’s director of national intelligence. If he becomes a leader in the positioning of the new technology, the AI industry could note his record as a watchdog for digital assets.

The regulation-by-enforcement crypto stance the industry decried under former Chairman Gary Gensler, a Democratic appointee of previous President Joe Biden, had its beginnings in Clayton’s tenure running the SEC. Clayton, who was appointed chairman by Trump in his first administration, began the high-profile legal fight with Ripple Labs as he was about to exit the agency in 2020.

That was one of…