Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko weighed in on the wealth tax debate this week, arguing that government money printing makes proposed wealth taxes more damaging than they appear on paper.
What Triggered the Exchange
Yakovenko was responding to entrepreneur and investor David Friedberg’s comment, which he made during a recent podcast appearance. Friedberg’s argument centered on what he described as the structural danger of giving the government the power to assess private net worth annually.
“A wealth tax takes away private property,” Friedberg said. “If you give the government the ability to do that on even 1% for billionaires, the next step is 5%, then 2% for millionaires, then 3% on people worth $100,000.”
The compliance mechanism concerns him as much as the rate. Annual net worth calculations require full asset disclosure. “Private property rights go out the window,” he said. “The government now has the right to assess all your value and take anything they want based on a vote.”
Friedberg described the logical endpoint as 51% of people voting to take everything from 49%, calling it the end state of a system that eventually eats itself.
Responding to comments, Yakovenko said the combination of monetary policy and annual wealth taxation creates a compounding problem for founders. “What’s worse is that government can print money and force asset prices to go up, which will force the people who are the best at building companies to give up more ownership of their companies,” he wrote.
The National Picture
Friedberg pointed out that this is no longer just a California conversation. Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are all pushing versions of a national wealth tax. He believes this will be the defining political battle between 2026 and 2028.
His frustration is not with taxation itself. He said that paying 53% in taxes is something he accepts as the price of living in a functioning society. What he objects to is a government that moves beyond income and starts claiming annual rights over everything you have already built and already paid tax on.
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