the past, present, and future of crypto in 401(k) plans
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Happy Thursday, advisors! In today’s newsletter, David Lawant, head of research at Anchorage Digital reviews crypto’s evolving role in 401(k)s, as regulatory clarity is poised to open up investments. Then, in Ask an Expert, Kevin Tam answers questions about crypto adoption around the world looking at the recent 13F filings. Happy Reading. Modernizing the nest egg: the past, present, and future of crypto in 401(k) plans The United States retirement system is about to reach a structural inflection point. For over a decade, the $10 trillion 401(k) market remained insulated from crypto assets due to regulatory ambiguity and litigation concerns. However, a decisive shift in federal policy is transforming 2026 into the year of integration, which in the long term will move crypto from the periphery into the institutional core of the American retirement system. The regulatory shift from “extreme care,” to “principled neutrality,” to “democratizing access.” The Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for making sure that ERISA, the 1974 federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry, is at the epicenter of this issue. In March 2022, it issued Compliance Assistance Release No. 2022-01. This release created a de facto ban on crypto assets in retirement plans by mandating that fiduciaries exercise “extreme care” and threatening targeted investigations for those engaging with crypto assets. On May 28, 2025, the DOL formally abandoned the “extreme care” standard with the Compliance Assistance Release No. 2025-01. This release formally rescinded the restrictive 2022 guidance, stating that the previous stance had “deviated from the requirements of ERISA” and the department’s “historically neutral, principled-based approach”. The rescission re-established the legal standard set by the Supreme Court which holds that fiduciaries must act prudently based on a contextual evaluation of risk and return, rather than…
Filed under: News - @ February 27, 2026 12:27 am