White House begins review of final rule on crypto in 401(k) plans

What happened

A final Labor Department rule that could ease the inclusion of alternative investments, including cryptocurrency, in 401(k) plans has reached the White House for review. Bloomberg Law reported that the package arrived Thursday, a step that typically comes before a rule is released publicly. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs logged it on Nov. 5 under the title "Fiduciary Duties In Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives," RIN 1210-AC38.

The filing identifies the department's Employee Benefits Security Administration as the authoring office. It marks the package as a final rule and an economically significant action, and it notes that no legal deadline governs completion. Bitcoin Magazine and CoinGape both reported on the OIRA filing.

The proposal behind the rule was unveiled March 30. In that draft, plan fiduciaries who followed a documented review process when adding private assets to a 401(k) menu would receive a legal safe harbor under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The six factors listed were performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, performance benchmarks and complexity. Meeting those factors would not require a plan to offer crypto; it would reduce litigation risk for employers that choose to do so.

Why it matters

The rule matters because it could affect how plan committees evaluate digital-asset exposure. President Donald Trump's Aug. 7, 2025, executive order, "Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors," directed the Labor secretary to revisit ERISA guidance and propose rules with appropriately calibrated safe harbors. The order's definition of alternative assets included private-market equity and debt, real estate, actively managed vehicles that invest in digital assets, commodities, infrastructure and lifetime-income strategies. The March proposal implements that directive.

The practical effect would not be an immediate change to every 401(k) lineup. A finalized safe harbor would give plan fiduciaries a clearer process if they want exposure through an asset-allocation sleeve that holds digital assets. For crypto, the reports frame the stakes as plan menus rather than spot ETF flows. The order also cast digital assets as a retirement-access issue for more than 90 million defined-contribution savers.

What the data shows

OIRA review under Executive Order 12866 is the last interagency checkpoint before a final rule can be published in the Federal Register. Bloomberg Law said the arrival signals the package is nearing completion. The same office cleared the proposed version in late March before the DOL published it; Bitcoin Magazine, citing prior Bloomberg coverage, said that earlier pass took roughly two months after a January submission and referenced the roughly $12 trillion 401(k) market. The final text is not yet public.

Background

The department has shifted its posture on crypto in retirement plans. In May 2025, it withdrew a March 2022 compliance release that had told fiduciaries to use "extreme care" before adding cryptocurrency to a 401(k) menu. The department said that phrase did not appear in ERISA and restored a context-specific standard. A DOL fact sheet described prudence under ERISA as process-based and said fiduciaries retain discretion to select any designated investment alternative if they follow the outlined review.

Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling described the approach as neutral, saying, "The department's days of picking winners and losers are over." The reports also note that Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren later urged the DOL to abandon the crypto-friendly path, while House Republicans have separately pushed to codify Trump's crypto order in statute. Industry and labor groups have argued opposite sides of the prudence standard for months, and comment volume on the proposal was heavy.

What to watch

Several questions remain. It is not yet clear whether the six-factor safe harbor survived the comment period intact, how digital-asset vehicles are described in the final rule, or what effective date the DOL selected. Those details will become clear when OIRA returns the rule and the department posts it. The pace of OIRA's review is also a test: the package is economically significant, and the published final rule may either preserve the process protection promised in March or reflect changes made during the comment fight.

CoinGape also noted that the White House review does not itself alter rules or guarantee that retirement savers will get crypto access. Regulatory approval would be followed by decisions by employers and plan managers about which investment products to include. The Labor Department must publish the final regulation after review and designate an effective date.

Questions readers ask