TLDR
- The Labor Department sent its 401(k) alternative assets rule to the White House for final review on Thursday.
- The proposal names no specific cryptocurrencies and sets no minimum market cap.
- Plan managers must weigh six factors, including fees, liquidity and valuation.
- Experts expect Bitcoin and Ether first, with ETFs likely before direct holdings.
- Legal protection for employers is limited, and a future administration could reverse the rule.
A proposed rule that would make it easier to offer crypto in 401(k) plans has reached the White House. The Labor Department filed it with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Thursday. That office sits within the Office of Management and Budget and reviews federal rules before they are published.
BREAKING: 🇺🇸 The rule that would allow crypto in 401(k) retirement plans has reached the White House for final review.
Once approved, Americans could invest in crypto through their 401(k)s. pic.twitter.com/6lDMnFlasP
— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) November 6, 2026
The filing follows President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the department to pave the way for alternative assets in retirement plans. These assets include digital assets and private equity. The department first unveiled its proposal in March.
What the Rule Says About Crypto
The March proposal does not name which digital assets could be included. It also sets no minimum market capitalization. Instead, it tells plan managers to weigh six factors when choosing investments.
Those factors are performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarks and complexity. The rule is meant to give employers and plan managers more legal protection. It does not require any plan to offer crypto.
In its filing, the Labor Department said it must balance potentially higher expenses against the goal of better long-term returns and wider diversification. The department also said it was still considering the costs of the rule. It did not give a figure.
The department earlier reversed guidance from the Biden administration that discouraged retirement managers from considering crypto. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren pushed the department earlier this year to scrap the rule. They said it would expose investors to volatile assets.
How Experts See Smaller Tokens
Teresa Goody Guillén, managing partner at Bellementis PLLC, said Bitcoin and Ether will likely come first. She pointed to their established markets and investment products. CoinGecko data showed Bitcoin at about $1.5 trillion and Ether at about $273 billion in market value as of 20:01 UTC on Nov. 6.
Guillén said smaller coins are not automatically ruled out. She said plan managers would need to show an investment meets the same standards as any other retirement option. “Big doesn’t mean suitable, and small doesn’t mean disqualified,” she said.
Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of Trace Finance, took a stricter view. He said Bitcoin passes the six-factor test clearly and Ether passes as well. He said other tokens would fail on track record or benchmarks before market cap even comes up.
Brites said the practical test is simple. A plan committee must be able to document a reliable daily price from a regulated product. “If not, it is not going in,” he said.
Experts also expect a gradual rollout. Guillén said ETFs and managed funds will likely come before direct crypto holdings. She said they fit existing custody and recordkeeping systems.
Holding crypto directly would raise concerns about storage, cybersecurity and pricing. Guillén said those risks should not automatically rule it out.
Brites expects existing brokerage options to come first. Standalone ETFs and funds with small amounts of crypto would follow. He expects some options in 2027, ETFs at larger employers later that year, and wider availability by 2028.
Brites said legal risk could also slow adoption. The proposal would give plan managers some protection from lawsuits. It would not stop them from being sued over investment choices.
He noted that the 2022 guidance was reversed in 2025. He said a plan designer signing a ten-year plan must consider that this rule could be reversed too. He added that courts now give agencies less deference, which leaves the weight of the legal protection unsettled.
Brites said White House review can take up to ninety days. Publication follows, and a rule typically takes effect about sixty days later.
