Far from Silicon Valley, Wyoming has been laying the legal groundwork to bring tech companies to the state for years. Cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken, which announced its new headquarters in Cheyenne, is one of the first big names to take Wyoming up on it.

Steven Lupein, director of the Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation at the University of Wyoming, said the move will benefit Wyomingites by providing good jobs for recent graduates and diversifying the state’s economy.

"We are an extraction state and an extraction state has booms and busts," Lupein pointed out. "Technology doesn't have quite those same up and down cycles."

Lupein noted Wyoming has passed more than 50 laws since 2017 to help welcome digital assets, an industry only about 15 years old. He added for companies like Kraken, legal clarity is critical.

"Businesses, if there are disputes, want to know what the rules of the road are, what are the guardrails," Lupein explained. "No other state has as defined a digital-asset law as Wyoming."

In addition to business case law, a 2019 state law established a Wyoming Chancery Court, which deals specifically with commercial, business and trust litigation.

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