Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he is considering exiting California over the state’s “deeply un-American” proposed wealth tax.
During a Tuesday evening appearance on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” Armstrong warned that tech founders are fleeing California over the state’s proposed first-of-its-kind billionaire tax – and hinted his firm, which operates its largest office in San Francisco, might be next in line.
“I think it’s deeply un-American to seize people’s assets. It might be unconstitutional,” said Armstrong, who is worth an estimated $8.8 billion, according to Forbes.
He argued that he has paid “tons of taxes” on his income and has no problem doing so – but that an extra tax on wealth and assets “starts to feel like a third-world country. That is a dangerous, dangerous path to go down.
“It’s against my values, I would say. I think it’s bad for the state and for America. So we’re considering any and all options basically at this point to be, in terms of relocation,” Armstrong said.
The exec added that he wouldn’t be so opposed to additional taxes if there wasn’t so much fraud and waste in the government.
Armstrong told CNBC last week that he’s considering relocating his home out of California by the end of the year.
As of June, Coinbase – an American crypto exchange and wallet platform with venture capitalist powerhouse Marc Andreessen on its board – employed 4,300 workers internationally.
The company insists it is a remote-first operation – but last May it signed a lease for 150,000 square feet of San Francisco office space. That came just four years after it paid $25 million to break its previous office lease in the same city.
Coinbase also operates offices in New York, North Carolina, London, Singapore, Luxembourg, Dublin and Bangalore, India, as well as many remote positions, according to its website.
It is unclear how many people Coinbase employs in California. The company did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Prop 40, California’s proposed billionaire tax, would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of roughly 200 billionaires living in the Golden State.
Mega-rich techies have pumped millions of dollars into a campaign to kill the tax. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent more than $100 million fighting the rule, which would cost him more than $13 billion personally.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly bought a $170 million mansion near Miami this year while venture capitalist Peter Thiel, ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Google co-founder Larry Page have fled the state.
Even California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has opposed the tax, warning it could hurt the state’s economy. Still, he’s backed a “national billionaires’ tax,” saying today’s office worker shouldn’t have to “shoulder a higher tax rate than the heiress.”
Californians are set to vote on the billionaire tax in November. If enacted, 90% of funding it raises would go toward healthcare services in the Golden State, while the remaining 10% would be spent on food assistance and education.
The ballot comes ahead of President Trump’s expected budget cuts next year. The state’s Medicaid program alone is predicted to lose up to $30 billion in federal funding.
Armstrong on Tuesday praised Trump for his friendly approach toward the cryptocurrency industry – while bashing former President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The Coinbase boss said Trump recognized in 2024 that there was a “massive voter base” of pro-crypto Americans.
“By the way, it wasn’t just like a good political opportunity,” Armstrong added. “He recognized that for the United States to stay relevant as a financial and technology hub, we have to embrace this … because if not, it’s all going to go offshore.”
“It’s not like you can uninvent crypto at this point, right? Like someone is going to do it in the world. You can’t just bury your head in the sand. So whether you like crypto or hate crypto, you got to put clear rules in the book so it can be built here in America.”
He accused the Biden administration of “an active campaign to try to curtail or even kill” the crypto industry, adding that Warren “had lots of influence with the financial regulators at that time.”
Last week, Armstrong attended a White House event alongside several other crypto CEOs where Trump pressured Congress to pass the Clarity Act, a crypto regulation bill, by the end of this year.
After Trump’s re-election win, Armstrong attended a Crypto Ball event held at the Mellon Auditorium, down the street from the White House, the weekend of Trump’s inauguration.
A few months later in March, Armstrong sat three seats from Trump at a White House summit for crypto industry leaders.
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