The US Labor Department published a proposed regulation on Monday intended to give 401(k) participants access to alternative investments, including crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) framed the rule as \u201chistoric,\u201d saying it lays out a clear, process-driven framework that plan fiduciaries can follow when evaluating non-traditional assets for defined contribution plans.<\/p>\n
Safe\u2011Harbor Rules For 401(k) Considering Crypto<\/p>\n
At the heart of the proposal are safe-harbor procedures designed to guide plan managers through the selection of designated investment alternatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the rule, fiduciaries would be required to evaluate potential alternatives, addressing factors such as expected performance, fees, liquidity, valuation methods, appropriate performance benchmarks, and the complexity of the crypto assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The department emphasized that the rule is intentionally neutral with respect to asset classes: it does not endorse any particular type of investment but instead sets out a prudent process for review and selection.<\/p>\n
The move follows President Trump\u2019s executive order, \u201cDemocratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors,\u201d and represents an attempt to translate that directive into practical regulatory guidance, according to the statement on the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Labor Department officials say the proposed rule returns the agency to a long-standing approach that focuses on fiduciary process rather than picking winners and losers among asset types.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department\u2019s days of picking winners and losers are over. Our rule clearly spells out that managers must evaluate any and all potential product offerings by following a prudent process,\u201d said Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling.<\/p>\n
Treasury And SEC Back Labor Proposal<\/p>\n
The EBSA noted that the Biden administration\u2019s 2022 compliance guidance \u2014 which effectively discouraged fiduciaries from offering crypto options \u2014 diverged from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act\u2019s (ERISA) requirements, contributing to the limited uptake of alternatives in retirement plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new proposal aims to remove that regulatory uncertainty by providing concrete, process-based protections for fiduciaries who choose to consider crypto investments. Officials from other agencies welcomed the initiative as part of a broader push to expand retirement investment options.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised the Labor Department\u2019s rulemaking as \u201canother step in ushering in President Trump\u2019s Golden Age,\u201d saying the proposal seeks to broaden access to additional retirement options for \u201cmillions of Americans\u201d while protecting retirement assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins also expressed support, noting that enabling Americans to participate in innovation and economic growth through diversified, long-term investments is important for retirement planning and that the SEC helped formulate the proposal.<\/p>\n
If finalized, the rule would provide plan fiduciaries with a structured path to consider crypto and other alternative assets without immediately exposing them to the compliance risks that had discouraged inclusion in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $66,580, having failed to capitalize on moves slightly above $68,000 earlier on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Labor Department published a proposed regulation on Monday intended to give 401(k) participants access to alternative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-358768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}