The Trump administration on Wednesday eliminated federal guidance that had discouraged employers from offering cryptocurrency and related digital assets in 401(k) retirement plans.
The move rescinds a 2022 directive from the Biden-era Labor Department, which had urged companies to exercise “extreme care” before allowing crypto in employee retirement accounts. At the time, officials cited “serious concerns” about the risks of fraud, theft, and volatility in the digital asset space and questioned the prudence of exposing retirement savings to such investments.
The current Labor Department dismissed that warning, arguing that the “extreme care” standard lacks a legal basis in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). In a new compliance bulletin issued Wednesday, the department noted that historically it had maintained a neutral stance toward specific asset types and investment strategies.
“The Department is neither endorsing, nor disapproving of, decisions by plan fiduciaries to include crypto assets,” the bulletin stated, emphasizing that the shift applies broadly to “tokens, coins, crypto assets, and any derivatives thereof.”
The policy change arrives as President Trump has vowed to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the world.”
