A U.S. Labor Department rule that could affect how 401(k) plans evaluate cryptocurrency and other alternative investments has reached White House review, but it has not been cleared or taken effect.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs docket shows that “Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives” arrived on November 5. The entry identifies it as a final rule, marks the review as pending and lists no legal deadline. That describes its stage in the regulatory process, rather than a final rule already available for employers to use.
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TheStreet reported on November 6 that the final text had not been released. Its precise terms therefore cannot yet be compared with the proposal published earlier this year.
What the public proposal says
The Labor Department’s March 31 proposal sets out a process-based safe harbor for the fiduciaries who select investment options for retirement plans. It identifies six non-exhaustive factors: performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarking and complexity.
Under the proposal, documented, objective consideration of the relevant factors would support a presumption that the fiduciary’s judgment was reasonable. The framework is intended to guide investment selection. It is not a government recommendation to buy Bitcoin or any other particular asset.
The proposal also says plans would be under no obligation to use the safe harbor or change their investment menus. It leaves the continuing duty to monitor investments in place. Those provisions are part of the published proposal; whether they appear unchanged in the final version remains to be seen.
Crypto access would still depend on plan decisions
The rulemaking follows President Donald Trump’s August 7, 2025 executive order on alternative assets in workplace retirement plans. The order covers private markets, real estate, commodities and other investments. Its digital-asset category refers to holdings in actively managed investment vehicles that invest in digital assets.
That policy direction does not by itself put cryptocurrency on an employee’s retirement menu. Employers and plan fiduciaries would still have to evaluate the investments they offer and the risks, costs and operational requirements involved.
In November 6 reporting by Cointelegraph, lawyer Teresa Goody Guillén said established investment products and markets could make Bitcoin and Ether easier to consider than smaller tokens. She also said exchange-traded funds and managed funds would likely fit existing custody and recordkeeping systems more readily than direct cryptocurrency holdings. Those are assessments of possible adoption, not eligibility decisions made by regulators.
Review is a milestone, not an investment launch
The development has drawn coverage from TheStreet, Cointelegraph and The Block because retirement-plan investment rules can influence which products employers are willing to assess. The next concrete information will be the outcome of OIRA’s review and, if the rule proceeds, the published text and its effective date.
Until then, the public record supports a limited conclusion: the Labor Department has advanced its work to the final-rule review stage. It does not establish when workers will gain new options, which cryptocurrencies any plan will offer or how much retirement money will flow into digital assets.
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