Why A California Wealth Tax Has The Kraken Co-CEO Talking Up Bitcoin

The wealth-tax debate, according to Arjun Sethi, is about trust in centralized authority versus individual control.

• Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi criticized wealth-tax proposals, citing why investors prefer cryptocurrency, self-custody, and decentralized finance over centralized systems.
• Sethi's family's experience with socialism in India influenced his views, and he prefers to hold assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin to avoid state-led wealth confiscation.
• His comments came after Bernie Sanders supported California's proposed 5% wealth tax, which would apply annually to roughly 200 individuals with net worths exceeding $1 billion.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, initiated a debate in the crypto community when he spoke out against proposed wealth tax policies on Wednesday. He said he would rather keep his money in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum than let California confiscate his property.

Sethi wrote a lengthy post on X saying that his family’s experience with state-led economic policies in India shaped his views on property rights and capital formation. “We’ll decide what’s fair. We’ll decide what you get to keep,” said Sethi. 

His comments come after Bernie Sanders supported a proposed 5% wealth tax in California. This would be an annual tax on net worth over $1 billion for about 200 of the state's wealthiest people.

Crypto Vs State Control Debate

Sethi compared that experience with the United States, where ownership and capital formation have always been important for economic growth, highlighting that India's eventual move toward market liberalization showed why centralized control over assets often doesn't work in practice. 

Sethi said that calls for wealth taxes are similar to the reasons why people are drawn to sovereign assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). He did this by talking about California politics and broader U.S. policy trends. 

He added that cryptocurrencies, self-custody, and decentralized finance exist because people whose assets have been seized or whose capital has been controlled are unwilling to rely solely on centralized institutions. Sethi noted that he would rather “invest money and hold it in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum and borrow and lend on apps like Tydro without having to worry about California seizing my property.”

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $88,634.62. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitcoin remained in ‘bearish’ territory, with ‘normal’ levels of chatter over the past day.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com<