President Trump Puts Ripple-Era SEC Chair Jay Clayton at the Center of His AI Push

President Trump has placed Jay Clayton—one of the most consequential SEC chairmen in crypto’s history—near the center of the administration’s new push on artificial intelligence.

The move gives Clayton a fresh technology-policy role years after his SEC launched the lawsuit that put Ripple and XRP at the heart of the debate over how U.S. securities law applies to digital assets.

That history makes his selection especially notable for crypto investors. Clayton enters the job with a record touching enforcement, custody, token regulation, and one of the sector’s defining court fights.

Decrypt reports that the newly announced Super Intelligence Force will coordinate the federal government’s effort to keep the United States ahead in advanced AI. Clayton, now Director of National Intelligence, is listed first among the group’s leaders and has been widely described as the administration’s new AI czar.

The force also includes Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. The group is expected to engage consumers, public-interest organizations, religious groups, critical-infrastructure providers, and AI companies, while reporting to the president and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

“I am announcing the formation of the Super Intelligence Force (SIF). The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the… pic.twitter.com/7Xgk7DrQFE

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 4, 2026

The announcement did not spell out a detailed timetable or a full operating mandate. It follows a September 29 executive order directing the executive branch to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official communications.

The White House order defines the new terminology using the existing federal statutory definition of artificial intelligence and calls for proposed legislative language within 60 days.

Clayton chaired the SEC during President Trump’s first term. The agency brought 57 crypto-related cases during his tenure, according to the tally he cited when leaving office.

His most enduring crypto decision came in December 2020, when the SEC sued Ripple and alleged that the company had sold XRP as an unregistered security. The case became a test of the agency’s legal theory and helped set the tone for the broader regulation-by-enforcement strategy that followed under the next SEC leadership.

Trump Taps Jay Clayton, the SEC Chair Who Sued Ripple, to Lead AI Pushhttps://t.co/smuEYeomy8

— Decrypt (@DecryptMedia) October 4, 2026

Clayton’s post-SEC path has not followed a simple anti-crypto line. He later advised One River Asset Management and served on the advisory board of crypto custodian Fireblocks.

He also oversaw the continued prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm while serving as interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

The White House Cabinet profile says Clayton was sworn in as Director of National Intelligence on August 3, 2026. That office makes him the president’s principal intelligence adviser and gives him a national-security vantage point on advanced computing, infrastructure, and foreign competition.

Crypto and AI policy increasingly collide around computing power, sanctions, financial surveillance, autonomous agents, stablecoin payments, and the custody of tokenized assets. A federal coordinating body led by someone with Clayton’s enforcement and market background could influence how those lines are drawn.

Nothing in the announcement creates a new crypto rule or sends a direct signal about XRP. Clayton’s record nevertheless shows familiarity with both the institutional case for digital assets and the government’s appetite for aggressive enforcement.

The immediate question is not whether his old Ripple views will simply be imported into AI policy. It is how a regulator who helped define crypto’s last legal era will balance innovation, national security, and market control in the next one.

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