California cryptocurrency startup BitGo has moved to South Dakota ahead of its initial public offering and amid a heated debate about a proposed ballot measure to tax billionaires.
The company that had been based in Palo Alto is now based in Sioux Falls, S.D., according to a December filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
BitGo, which is targeting a valuation of $1.96 billion, offers tools to businesses that help them manage their digital assets and keep them secure.
It occupies 5,250 square feet of office space in Sioux Falls as part of a lease scheduled to expire in 2028, the filing said. As of September, the digital asset infrastructure company said it had office space in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, Canada, India, Germany, Singapore, South Korea and Dubai. It had 566 full-time employees.
The rise of remote work has made it possible for businesses to recruit employees outside of their main headquarters. BitGo’s career page lists openings for a variety of roles — some of them remote — including in California and South Dakota. Some jobs, though, asks applicants whether they can work on-site.
The filing doesn’t say why the company moved its headquarters. Business leaders who have been critical of California regulation have been relocating their headquarters. Database management company Oracle and social media company X moved their main offices.
SFGate earlier reported on BitGo’s move.
An initiative to tax some of California’s wealthiest residents still needs enough signatures to make it on the November ballot, but it’s already sparking a lot of backlash. Under the Billionaire Tax Act, Californians worth more than $1 billion would pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth. Most of that funding would go toward healthcare to help offset widespread cuts by the Trump administration.
Critics of the proposal include BitGo Chief Executive Mike Belshe, who said on X that a new tax would also harm startups.
“Who in their right mind would found a new business in California if California does this?,” he wrote in late December.
Although some tech moguls, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, recently have moved some of their companies out of California, proponents of the proposal say concerns that billionaires will flee are overblown.
The proposed tax would apply to about 200 California billionaires who reside in the state as of Jan. 1. The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the union behind the initiative, said that it would raise $100 billion, and that most billionaires haven’t moved.
BitGo didn’t immediately respond to questions about its headquarters.