The Trump administration has ended Biden-era guidance against including cryptocurrency in 401(k) plans.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration of the Department of Labor’s rescinded a 2022 compliance release that discouraged plan fiduciaries from including crypto options in the retirement plans.
The guidance urged “extreme care” before adding cryptocurrency to investment menus. The DOL said in a news release that language deviated from Employee Retirement Income Security Act requirements and was a departure from the department’s “historically neutral, principled-based approach to fiduciary investment decisions.”
“The Biden administration’s department of labor made a choice to put their thumb on the scale,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer “We’re rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not DC bureaucrats.”
The DOL said it is taking a “neutral stance,” neither endorsing, nor opposing he inclusion of cryptocurrency in a plan’s investment menu.
When evaluating any type of investment type, a plan fiduciary should consider all relevant facts and circumstances and will “necessarily be context specific,” the DOL said.
The DOL’s new stance follows President Donald Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrency, including his launch of the $TRUMP memecoin before his inauguration.
