Cryptoupdated 21m ago3 min read
U.S. Department of Labor Sends Final Rule to White House for Crypto in 401(k)s
“The US Department of Labor's final rule on alternative assets in 401(k) plans reached the White House for review, South Korea's Gopax stopped withdrawals”
“The proposal could open the door to more cryptocurrencies in retirement plans, however, it does not guarantee they will be offered.”
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Final rule would create a fiduciary safe harbor to include cryptocurrencies in 401(k) menus. Rule sent to White House for final review; OIRA labeled economically significant.
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White House review
The U.S. Department of Labor sent a final rule to the White House for final review that would create a fiduciary safe harbor to include cryptocurrencies in 401(k) retirement plans, with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs logging the package as RIN 1210-AC38.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs received the rule on Thursday, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and the proposal reached the White House for final review on Thursday.
The rule would guide retirement plan managers to consider six factors when choosing alternative investments, and the proposal does not specify which digital assets could be included or set a minimum market capitalization requirement.
Teresa Goody Guillén said the real question is whether an investment meets the same standards of prudence, liquidity, valuation and investor protection as any other retirement option, and Bernardo Brites said the practical test is whether a plan committee can document a daily, reliable price from a regulated wrapper.
The proposal does not guarantee that crypto will be offered, and the rule changes the legal risk, not the plumbing, with White House review described as able to take up to ninety days before publication and an effective date typically sixty days later.
What the safe harbor does
The U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule creates a process-based safe harbor for fiduciaries, and it is described as a legal protection for employers and plan sponsors if they follow a defined process of selection and oversight.
The rule does not compel anyone to offer bitcoin or other digital assets, and it is described as reducing legal risk rather than automatically granting access to crypto.
The March 31, 2026 proposal is described as implementing an August 2025 executive order, and the proposal is said to guide fiduciaries to consider performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarks and complexity.
Bernardo Brites said “Run any token through that list and the answer is short,” and he added that Bitcoin passes clearly while Ether passes and everything else fails on track record or benchmark before a fiduciary ever gets to market cap.
Teresa Goody Guillén said “Big doesn’t mean suitable, and small doesn’t mean disqualified,” and she argued that digital assets should not get special treatment or be excluded because they use different technology.
Timing and market impact
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review is described as a procedural step that usually comes before a rule is released publicly, and the docket entry is described as listing no legal deadline for completion. The rule’s timeline is described as: White House review can take up to ninety days, then publication, then an effective date typically sixty days later, and the proposal is described as not setting minimum percentages or pushing plans to include crypto. The rule is described as leaving decisions to each employer, and the rule is described as not changing obligations nor automatically granting access to crypto that can already be included under existing fiduciary duties.
Altcoin Buzz said the wallets tied to the Binance theft have swapped about $50 million of stolen XRP into bitcoin, and it said about $226 million of XRP is still sitting in addresses linked to the theft. Altcoin Buzz also said Elliptic put the 29 October theft at $6.43 billion across 11 blockchains, with about $3.11 billion still in linked addresses, while Cointelegraph said smaller cryptocurrencies could face more challenges than Bitcoin and Ether due to limited history and liquidity.