A final Department of Labor rule that would ease alternative assets, including cryptocurrency, into 401(k) plans has reached the White House for review. The step usually precedes public release, but the final text is not yet public. The outcome depends on whether the safe harbor from the March proposal survived intact.
A final DOL rule that would ease private equity, real estate and cryptocurrency into 401(k) retirement plans arrived at the White House on Thursday for review, a procedural step that usually precedes public release.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs logged the package on Nov. 5 under the title "Fiduciary Duties In Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives." The filing marks the stage as a final rule, flags it as economically significant and notes that there is no legal deadline for completion.
What the March proposal offered
The DOL unveiled the proposal on March 30. Under that draft, plan fiduciaries who follow a documented process when adding private assets to a 401(k) menu would get a legal safe harbor under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
However, the safe harbor does not force plans to offer crypto. The proposal names six factors: performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, performance benchmarks and complexity. Meeting them lowers the litigation risk for employers that decide they want to offer crypto.
The approach also reverses an earlier stance. In May 2025 the DOL rescinded its March 2022 compliance release, which told fiduciaries to use "extreme care" before putting cryptocurrency on a 401(k) menu.
What remains unknown
Bloomberg Law said the arrival signals the package is nearing completion. Still, the final text is not yet public. Whether the six-factor safe harbor survived comment intact, how digital-asset vehicles are described and what effective date the DOL chose will only be clear when OIRA returns the rule and the department posts it.
For bitcoin, the stakes sit in plan menus rather than spot ETF flows. A finalized safe harbor would not put bitcoin and crypto on every lineup overnight. It would give plan committees a clearer map if they want exposure through an asset-allocation sleeve that holds digital assets.
Source: Bitcoin Magazine
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
