Crypto retirement plan rule reaches White House review
A final crypto retirement plan rule from the Labor Department has reached White House review, the last step before it can ease alternative assets into 401(k) menus.
Bitcoin in workplace savings plans moved a step closer this week. A final crypto retirement plan rule drafted by the Labor Department arrived at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on November 5, Bloomberg Law reported, a stage that usually comes just before publication.
What happened
The package, logged as "Fiduciary Duties In Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives" under RIN 1210-AC38, comes from the department's Employee Benefits Security Administration and is marked as an economically significant final rule with no legal deadline, according to Bitcoin Magazine. It follows a proposal unveiled on March 30.
That draft offered a legal safe harbor to plan fiduciaries who document a review of six factors when adding private assets to a 401(k) menu: performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, performance benchmarks and complexity. It covers private equity, real estate and digital assets alike. Meeting the test does not require any employer to offer crypto; it lowers litigation risk for those that choose to.
The rule stems from President Donald Trump's August 7, 2025, executive order on alternative assets in 401(k) plans. In May 2025 the department had already rescinded its 2022 guidance urging "extreme care" with crypto. Bitcoin Magazine noted that the proposed version cleared the same White House office roughly two months after submission.
Why it matters
Retirement plans are one of the largest pools of capital that crypto has not yet reached at scale; Bitcoin Magazine cited a roughly $12 trillion 401(k) market. Even small allocations would add a steady source of demand, which is why the crypto retirement plan rule matters more to long-term flows than daily ETF swings.
Experts told Cointelegraph that bitcoin and ether are likely to come first, mostly through ETFs and managed funds that fit existing custody and recordkeeping systems. Lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén said size alone should not decide eligibility: "Big doesn't mean suitable, and small doesn't mean disqualified." Custody rules matter too, as our coverage of the SEC crypto custody rule proposal noted.
Trace Finance chief executive Bernardo Brites was blunter, saying bitcoin and ether pass a fiduciary screen while most other tokens fail on track record or benchmarks. Cointelegraph cited CoinGecko data putting bitcoin's market value near $1.5 trillion and ether's near $273 billion. Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling has said the department's "days of picking winners and losers are over.
What's next
The final text, including any changes to the six-factor safe harbor and its effective date, will only be clear once the White House returns the rule and the department publishes it. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have urged the department to drop the crypto-friendly approach, and Democratic control of Congress after the Clarity Act midterm odds collapse could revive that pressure.
For now, the crypto retirement plan rule sits at the final checkpoint. Bloomberg Law first reported the White House review.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.