Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase Global Inc., speaks at the Messari Mainnet Summit in New York on Thursday, September 21, 2023.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
coinbase I’m following tesla From Delaware to Texas.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday that crypto exchanges are changing the way they are established, a year after Elon Musk did something similar for his electric car maker. Musk also reincorporated his rocket maker SpaceX from Delaware to Texas.
“Delaware’s legal framework once provided consistency for businesses, but that is no longer the case,” Grawal wrote, pointing to recent “unpredictable outcomes” in the Delaware Chancery Court.
Some notable names include: drop box, TripAdvisor and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz announced their withdrawal from Delaware. The move was supported by Musk following a Delaware Chancery Court ruling that ordered Tesla to cancel its CEO’s 2018 pay package worth about $56 billion in options.
“If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, we recommend that you move to another state as soon as possible,” Musk wrote in a February 2024 post on X in which he filed for SpaceX to change its state of incorporation.
Last week, Tesla shareholders voted to approve Musk’s latest pay package, which could reach up to $1 trillion.
Delaware has long been a leading state for U.S. companies to incorporate, due to its flexible corporate laws and specialized judicial system, and is seen as providing a balance between management and shareholder rights. Texas law allows companies to limit shareholder lawsuits against insiders for breach of fiduciary duty.
Coinbase and early backer Andreessen Horowitz are currently litigating in Delaware over the sale of the cryptocurrency company’s stake in a 2021 public offering.
Like Musk, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was a major contributor to President Donald Trump’s 2024 White House campaign.
—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
WATCH: Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer says laws didn’t change because of Musk

