Armstrong once again warns Coinbase may exit California

Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of Coinbase, appeared on the Katie Miller Podcast and described California's proposed tax on billionaires as an "unconstitutional asset seizure." Additionally, he asserted that artificial intelligence requires no regulatory oversight.

By appearing on the right-wing podcast, Armstrong extends his longstanding practice of silencing employees' political expression while channeling company resources and personal funds to back Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.

Katie Miller, married to Stephen Miller, who serves as the White House deputy chief of staff, is a Republican loyalist. She had a short tenure at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which the article calls disastrous, and now works solely as a "podcaster."

Bad look, but who's watching?

Armstrong's decision to be a guest on Miller's show is unlikely to attract new supporters; as of the article's publication, only 2,000 viewers had watched the episode. Still, that is probably not the reason he participated.

What is clear is that Armstrong has been seeking favor with the Trump administration through various means.

That involves contributing to the demolition of the White House East Wing, endorsing a military parade in June that the article deems poorly conceived, listing Trump's memecoin on Coinbase, and backing every crypto bill the president and his allies have introduced.

At the same time, the Coinbase chief has argued that a proposed California wealth tax on the ballot is unconstitutional and stated the company is open to "any and all options in terms of relocation."

This is not the first instance of Armstrong and Coinbase threatening an exit from California. In 2021, he said the company was "closing its San Francisco offices for good."

Despite these statements, Coinbase in 2025 signed a four-year lease for 150,000 square feet of office space in San Francisco.

A lot of talking, little substance

Miller made multiple attempts to coax compliments from Armstrong toward Trump, ranging from implying that the president has a much better grasp of crypto than Biden did, to inquiring about Armstrong's preferred memecoin — clearly hoping he would name Trump's token.

Miller also faulted Representative Ro Khanna's idea of acquiring a share of a unicorn's stock instead of taxing founders' unrealied gains, even though the Trump administration has taken substantial positions in Intel, Westinghouse, and numerous other businesses.

Armstrong described the ballot initiative as "feeling very third world" and said it amounted to the government "coming in and seizing private property."

During the podcast, Armstrong advanced several entirely false assertions.

For example, he claimed that "if you go back 100 years, people in the US' average life expectancy was 35 or something and now we've more than doubled it."

That is entirely incorrect. According to Social Security Administration data, the average cohort lifespan in 1924 was 57 years, and it has not doubled in the past century.

He further asserted that "there's milions of crypto voters" and that no anti-crypto voters exist, offering no proof for these exaggerated statements.

Armstrong's willingness to spend time with Katie Miller is likely driven by his urgent push for passage of the CLARITY Act this year. He is expected to launch a marketing campaign over the next month to influence voters and lawmakers in favor of the bill.