Crypto World
U.S. Senate Clash Over Crypto Policy
Key Insights
- Warren questions SEC case dismissals, warning politics may be shaping crypto enforcement and investor protection.
- SEC Chair Atkins defends a shift away from lawsuits, prioritizing fraud prevention and clearer regulatory guidance.
- Senate clash highlights divide: clearer crypto laws vs stricter enforcement to protect markets and innovation.
Senate Hearing Turn Into a Crypto Flashpoint
A heated Capitol Hill hearing on February 12 thrust US crypto regulation into the spotlight as Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins over the agency’s recent enforcement decisions.
🚨 WARREN CALLS OUT TRUMP’S SEC OVER CRYPTO DONORS!
Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( @ewarren ) grilled SEC Chair Paul Atkins ( @SECPaulSAtkins ) over dropped cases against major crypto firms tied to Donald Trump’s ( @realDonaldTrump ) inauguration.
New data shows sharp declines in SEC… https://t.co/MAZx9QxpnA pic.twitter.com/PIbQvlzl4y
— BSCN (@BSCNews) February 13, 2026
Warren directly questioned why several investigations into major crypto firms were dropped, particularly those connected to companies that financially supported Donald Trump’s inauguration. She argued the timing raised serious concerns about political influence and investor protection.
Atkins rejected the allegations, saying the SEC is moving away from “regulation by enforcement” and back toward its core mandate: preventing fraud, protecting investors, and maintaining fair markets. He insisted previous leadership relied too heavily on lawsuits instead of clear guidance.
Is SEC Enforcement Really Declining?
Warren cited public statistics suggesting enforcement has slowed:
- Securities offering cases fell 10.64% from 2024 to 2025
- Investment adviser actions dropped 23.71%
- Broker-dealer cases declined 29.51%
Independent research also reported fewer settlements in fiscal 2025. However, Atkins countered that final annual data has not yet been released and argued the agency is prioritizing fraud over technical registration violations.
Supporters say the shift corrects regulatory overreach seen under former Chair Gary Gensler. Critics warn fewer actions could weaken accountability in the digital asset market.
Registration Violations or Innovation Barriers?
Central to the debate is whether unregistered token offerings automatically constitute misconduct. Crypto companies have long argued unclear securities definitions made compliance difficult.
Atkins supports legislation similar to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would divide oversight between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He compared the past environment to innovators stuck between two competing regulators.
Warren disagreed, warning reduced oversight could usher in a “golden age of fraud.”
Could Politics Be Influencing Crypto Policy?
Warren highlighted dismissed cases involving major exchanges including Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, and Binance, noting their financial ties to inauguration events. She also questioned dropped actions tied to executives who later received presidential clemency.
Atkins maintained pardons do not erase civil liability and emphasized that fraud investigations continue regardless of industry.
Conclusion
The battle discloses a larger policy divide: is a more explicit legislation more crucial in fostering innovativeness or is weaker enforcement more likely to hurt investors. The future of the United States regulation of digital assets may be determined by the final effect of Congress discussing crypto-market-structure legislation.
The crypto market has started tanking once again, dropping 2.6% to 2.37 trillion as US President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. campaign against Iran would be entering a final phase over the coming weeks to end the conflict once and for all.
Summary
- Crypto market fell 2.6% to $2.37 trillion as escalating U.S.–Iran tensions triggered risk-off sentiment across global markets.
- Rising oil prices above $100 fueled inflation fears, reducing expectations of Fed rate cuts and adding pressure on risk assets.
Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest crypto asset, fell over 4% to $66,250 amid souring market sentiment over a potential drop to $65,000, which many consider the last line of defense for a potential recovery.
Ethereum (ETH) was down 3.4%, approaching the $2,000 support, while other major crypto assets such as XRP (XRP), BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE) posted losses between 2% and 6%. The majority of the top 100 crypto assets also shared the downward trend in the red.
As crypto prices fell, they triggered over $420 million in liquidations across leveraged markets as traders unwind their positions. The majority of this tally came from long liquidations, which saw $255 million wiped out, with Bitcoin and Ethereum accounting for around $64 million in long liquidations each, which accelerated the selloff.
The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which shows market psychology, fell by 5 points to 27, showing increasing fear and anxiety in the market as investors expect more volatility.
Crypto prices began slipping downwards shortly after Trump said in an address to the nation on Wednesday that the U.S. military is going to hit Iran extremely hard over the coming 2 to 3 weeks to try to secure a decisive win in the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Trump warned that the U.S. would target Iranian energy infrastructures if no deal is reached. He also urged Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and his allies in the region to pressure Tehran to relinquish control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite the rhetoric, Trump mentioned that discussions are ongoing for a ceasefire between both sides. Iran, for its part, has demanded a permanent end to the war, compensation for damages during the war, and the full withdrawal of U.S. military presence from the region.
The fresh threat of escalation pushed crude oil prices back above $100, leading to a broad selloff through crypto, stocks, and traditional safe-haven assets such as gold. Gold prices fell 4% to $4,590 today, while silver fell 7.5%. Asian stocks such as Japan’s Nikkei 225 were down 2.5% as investors moved to cash.
Surging oil prices are triggering fears of runaway inflation over the coming months. As such, the market expects the Federal Reserve to continue to hold interest rates steady or even hike them as they combat the inflation spike caused by oil prices.
Lower expectations for Fed rate cuts typically weigh heavily on risk assets like cryptocurrency.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX, will pay $3.7 million to resolve his case with the US commodities regulator over his alleged role in the collapse of the crypto exchange and the misappropriation of user funds.
As part of the supplemental consent order, Singh will be required to pay a disgorgement of $3.7 million and imposes a five-year ban on trading in markets and an eight-year registration ban, blocking him from obtaining a license to operate in the sector, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The initial consent order and supplemental consent order resolve the CFTC’s enforcement action against Singh,” it added.
FTX’s bankruptcy in November 2022 sent shock waves through the crypto industry, erasing billions in market liquidity, shattering user confidence and prompting authorities to accuse its leadership of fraud.
David Miller, the CFTC’s director of enforcement, ruled out additional restitution or civil monetary penalties for now and said the current penalties reflect Singh’s cooperation with authorities.
“The defendant engaged in, and aided, significant violations of the Act and CFTC regulations as the former FTX head of engineering, and the consent orders reflect the severity of these violations,” Miller said.
“But this resolution also reflects the Commission’s commitment to rewarding and incentivizing material assistance in Division investigations,” he added.
Singh charged by multiple agencies after FTX collapse
Attorneys for Singh said he was grateful this latest matter was at an end, and were “pleased that the CFTC recognized our client’s limited role in the underlying conduct and his extensive cooperation,” according to Bloomberg.
The CFTC accused Singh of personally misappropriating millions of dollars in assets and charged him in February 2023 with two counts: fraud by misappropriation and aiding and abetting fraud committed by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Related: FTX Recovery Trust to distribute $2.2B to creditors in March
In April 2023, Singh entered into the consent order, was found liable for the charges and agreed to cooperate with the commission’s investigators. The regulator originally sought a range of penalties, including restitution, civil monetary penalties and permanent trading and registration bans.
In a separate case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in February 2023, Singh was accused of misusing customer funds and committing fraud by misappropriation, in violation of securities laws. The case was settled in December with Singh receiving an eight-year industry ban.
After FTX collapsed, US prosecutors also indicted Singh and four of his colleagues on charges including fraud and campaign finance violations. He faced decades in prison if found guilty, but after testifying against Bankman-Fried and cooperating with prosecutors, he received time served and three years of supervised release.
Magazine: Ripple joins Singapore sandbox, Bhutan’s big Bitcoin selloff: Asia Express
The U.S. Treasury has proposed its first set of rules to implement the GENIUS Act and has opened a 60-day public comment period to define how stablecoin oversight can be handled at the state level.
Summary
- U.S. Treasury has proposed initial rules under the GENIUS Act, opening a 60-day consultation to define when state oversight of stablecoins is permitted.
- Issuers with less than $10 billion in circulation may fall under state supervision if frameworks meet federal standards, with strict reserve, disclosure, and compliance requirements in place.
Under the proposal, issuers with less than $10 billion in circulating stablecoins may operate under state supervision, provided those frameworks meet a “substantially similar” standard to federal regulations.
The proposal seeks to clarify how regulatory responsibilities will be divided as the regulation begins to take shape.
Stablecoin issuers with less than $10 billion in circulation are eligible for that route, though the flexibility comes with firm guardrails. Treasury has set out non-negotiable conditions, including full 1:1 reserve backing using cash or high-quality liquid assets, along with mandatory monthly disclosures.
Compliance with federal anti-money laundering and sanctions rules remains compulsory across all jurisdictions. The proposal also reinforces a ban on rehypothecation, preventing issuers from reusing reserves to support multiple obligations.
Meanwhile, state regulators are given room to impose stricter oversight, covering liquidity thresholds, reserve requirements, risk management standards, and enforcement mechanisms. Any framework introduced at the state level must deliver outcomes that match or exceed federal protections, rather than offering a lighter alternative.
Regulators are still working through how the GENIUS framework will align with existing money transmission laws and which agencies will oversee different parts of the market. Previous consultations have already covered areas such as digital forensic tools, tax reporting, and data collection.
Concerns remain over stablecoin yields
As previously reported by crypto.news, the legislation, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, marked a major step in formalizing stablecoin regulation.
However, uncertainty around yield-bearing stablecoins continues to hold back progress on the broader CLARITY market structure bill.
Some industry players argue that yield-generating stablecoins could offer higher returns than traditional savings accounts, while banking groups remain concerned about potential deposit outflows.
Polymarket’s daily fee revenue crossed $1 million on April 1, just two days after the platform expanded taker fees to nearly all market categories.
The surge, up from $696,000 on March 31, followed the March 30 rollout of variable taker fees across politics, finance, economics, culture, weather, and tech markets.
From Growth Play to Revenue Machine
Polymarket previously charged fees only on crypto and sports contracts. The updated structure applies a dynamic, probability-based model in which fees peak at 50% probability of the outcome and drop near the extremes.
Crypto markets carry the steepest rate at 1.80%, while sports remain the lowest at 0.75%.
Makers pay nothing. Instead, they receive daily USDC rebates of 20% to 25% of collected fees, depending on the category. Geopolitics and world events remain entirely fee-free.
On-chain analyst DefiOasis noted that April 1 fees reached $927,000 on Dune Analytics, translating to an annualized run rate of roughly $338 million.
“The latest full single-day fee on April 1 was $927,000, and it is expected that single-day fees could exceed $1 million in the coming days. Based on the April 1 single-day fee, Polymarket’s annualized equivalent reaches $338 million,” the analyst noted.
DefiLlama data placed the figure even higher, at $1.07 million.
Competition Heats Up Across Chains
The fee shift arrives as prediction markets draw new entrants. Binance Wallet began beta-testing an in-app prediction feature through Predict Fun (Predict.fun), a BNB Smart Chain protocol that saw $7.68 million in net inflows on a single day after the integration.
Predict Fun’s open interest rebounded to $23 million, according to DefiOasis.
Monthly prediction market volume now exceeds $20 billion industrywide.
The sector’s rapid monetization, from Polymarket’s fee expansion to Kalshi’s reported $1.5 billion annualized run rate, signals a broader transition from subsidized growth to sustainable revenue.
Whether Polymarket can sustain above $1 million in daily fees will depend on trading volume resilience as takers adjust to the new cost structure.
The post Polymarket’s Fee Overhaul Pushes Daily Revenue Past $1 Million appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Bitcoin price drifted closer to a key support zone near $65,000 after Donald Trump signaled that military action in the Middle East is set to continue over the coming weeks.
Summary
- Bitcoin slipped toward the $65,000 support zone after Trump signaled continued military action in the Middle East.
- Oil prices climbed back above $100, adding pressure on risk assets as traders reacted to renewed geopolitical tensions.
Addressing the nation from the White House on Wednesday, Trump said U.S. forces are nearing the final stages of “Operation Epic Fury,” describing it as a campaign that has already crippled large parts of Iran’s nuclear and naval infrastructure.
Even so, the tone of the address left little room for de-escalation in the short term.
“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly,” he said, before adding that the U.S. would “hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.”
Markets reacted quickly. Oil prices reversed earlier softness and climbed back above the $100 mark, reflecting renewed concern over supply disruptions tied to the Strait of Hormuz. The move fed into broader unease, with equities and digital assets slipping as traders reassessed geopolitical risk.
Bitcoin (BTC), which had shown signs of stabilizing earlier in the week, extended its decline, dropping over 2% since Trump took the stage. Price action hovered just above $66,500 at last check, with buyers attempting to hold the $65,000 region that has repeatedly acted as a near-term floor.
A sustained break below it would weaken the current structure and open the door toward the $60,000 range, an area that previously drew in demand during earlier pullbacks. Market participants have treated this zone as a key inflection point, where downside momentum either stalls or accelerates.
At the same time, diplomatic channels have not been fully shut. Trump has acknowledged that discussions are ongoing, even as military pressure builds.
Washington has continued to push for Iran to dismantle its nuclear program and allow greater oversight of its facilities, alongside restoring open commercial shipping routes. Tehran, on the other hand, has called for a permanent ceasefire, compensation for damages, and a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region.
Looking ahead, Trump maintained that the disruption to global energy flows may not last indefinitely. He argued that Iran would eventually ease restrictions on oil movement as it looks to rebuild.
“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” he said, adding that oil would resume flowing and gas prices would fall as economic activity picks up again.
Any meaningful de-escalation could offer relief to risk assets, including Bitcoin, as lower energy costs and reduced geopolitical tension tend to support liquidity conditions. Until then, markets remain sensitive to headlines, with crypto trading closely tied to shifts in oil prices and broader macro signals.
Crypto World
XRP Price Holds $1.35 as ETF Outflows Hit $31 Million While Pepeto Presale Fills Past $8 Million Before Listing
The xrp price holds at $1.35 with seven spot ETFs but March posting first monthly outflows at $31 million. Bitcoin flushes and altcoins struggle to find real support. The market is being reminded that volatility exposes more than just weak hands. It exposes weak infrastructure.
Pepeto is a meme coin exchange aiming to bring zero fee trading to three chains, extending meme culture with real exchange tools instead of chasing short term rotations. Today is the day that matters. The entry available right now does not exist next week, and every person who entered early in crypto made one choice: they moved today.
XRP spot ETFs posted their first monthly outflows in March at $31 million despite holding $1 billion in combined assets across seven funds, according to Bankless Times. RLUSD stablecoin growth slowed after reaching $1.3 billion market cap.
CoinDesk confirmed the xrp price is also shaped by the CLARITY Act stablecoin compromise reaching the Senate Banking Committee by mid April, with commodity classification confirmed for 16 crypto assets that could accelerate institutional flows.
Where a Meme Exchange Extends Trading With Real Tools While the XRP Price Waits
Why Pepeto Brings Zero Fee Trading to Three Chains Instead of Chasing XRP Price Rotations
Pepeto is built around one reality: volatility exposes weak infrastructure, and exchange tools that work across three chains do not depend on any single asset’s price direction. Instead of chasing short term rotations, Pepeto extends meme culture with real exchange tools: PepetoSwap for zero fee trading, a contract screener for wallet protection, and a bridge connecting Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana at zero cost. The architect behind the original $11 billion Pepe coin partnered with a former Binance expert to build this.
Staking at 189% APY adds a yield component XRP cannot offer during periods of stress. The SolidProof audit proves the contracts are safe, and $8 million entering at $0.000000186 while the index read 8 adds a conviction signal that XRP ETF outflows cannot match. The 420 trillion supply matches what took PEPE to $11 billion.
Today is the day that matters. The entry available right now does not exist next week. Every person who entered early in crypto made one choice: they moved today instead of planning to come back tomorrow. Analysts project 100x from presale to Binance listing, and one day of hesitation means one day closer to the listing price replacing what is available.
XRP Price Prediction: Targets, Levels, and CLARITY Act Impact for 2026
XRP trades at $1.35 on April 1 according to CoinMarketCap, locked between $1.29 and $1.60 after March’s first monthly ETF outflows at $31 million. RLUSD passed $1.3 billion market cap but growth stalled.
The CLARITY Act stablecoin compromise targets a Senate markup by mid April, and passage could give XRP full commodity status alongside BTC and ETH. Support sits at $1.29, and a break below opens $1.10. Resistance at $1.60 needs to break for the rally toward $2 to begin.
Standard Chartered maintains its $8 year end target. From $1.35, reaching $5 gives 275% and reaching $8 gives 500%, both over quarters that depend on legislative timing nobody controls while the presale compresses 100x into one listing.
The XRP Price Waits for Legislation, but Today Is the Day That Matters for the Presale
Today is the day that matters. The entry available right now does not exist next week. The xrp price waits for the CLARITY Act and ETF flows to reverse, but Pepeto does not wait because exchange tools earn from every trade in every condition. The Pepeto official website shows more than $8 million with stages filling faster each round.
Entering today while the Binance listing approaches is how the one decision that separates winners gets made, and choosing to come back tomorrow could mean the stage is full, the price is higher, and the cost of one day becomes the number that echoes through the rest of this cycle.
Visit Pepeto today before this presale stage closes and the Binance listing erases the entry that only exists right now.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs
What is the xrp price on April 1 2026?
XRP trades at $1.35 with support at $1.29 and resistance at $1.60. Standard Chartered targets $8 year end if the CLARITY Act passes mid April.
How do ETF outflows affect the xrp price?
March posted first monthly outflows at $31 million. The Pepeto official website shows capital entering during fear while XRP ETFs face redemptions.
Is Pepeto a better entry than XRP right now?
XRP targets 275% to 500% over quarters. Pepeto targets 100x from presale to listing with zero fee exchange tools and a SolidProof audit behind the same cofounder.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Bitcoin fell 2.2% to $66,609 on Wednesday, giving back Tuesday’s gains after Trump’s primetime address to the nation promised to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks rather than offering the de-escalation markets had priced in.
Every major token in the top 10 dropped. Ether slid 2.2% to $2,056, BNB fell 3.9% to $591, XRP lost 2.5% to $1.31, and solana’s SOL led losses at 5.2%, extending its weekly decline to 13%.
The selloff reversed a sharp global rally that had built through Tuesday on Trump’s earlier comments that the war could end within weeks and that a deal with Tehran was not a prerequisite. Asian stocks had surged 4%. S&P 500 futures had jumped. The mood was the most optimistic since the conflict began five weeks ago.
Then the speech happened. In nearly 20 minutes, Trump did not outline any shift in Iran policy, did not provide specifics on how operations would proceed, and did not signal any pathway to a ceasefire.
The Strait of Hormuz, the critical oil shipping lane that has been effectively shut since mid-March, would reopen “naturally” once hostilities subside, he said, without offering a timeline.
Brent crude jumped 5% to above $106 a barrel. Asian shares fell 2.1%. U.S. and European equity futures dropped more than 1.2%. The dollar strengthened. Treasuries dropped on inflation concerns.
The crypto-specific picture is now familiar to the point of numbness. Bitcoin has spent five weeks bouncing between roughly $60,000 and $73,000, selling on every escalation headline, rallying on every de-escalation headline, and ending up roughly where it started.
The Fear and Greed Index sits at 8, deep in extreme fear territory, where it has been stuck between 8 and 14 for the past month.
There is a seasonal argument for optimism. April has historically been one of bitcoin’s strongest months, finishing green 10 out of 15 years with an average gain of 20.9% versus an average decline of 8.8% in down years. Bitcoin also bounced firmly off its two-month uptrend support near $60,000 last week and is attempting to reclaim the 50-day moving average.
But seasonality doesn’t trade against a war. The pattern of the past five weeks — hope, headline, reversal — shows no sign of breaking until the conflict itself does.
SpaceX submitted a confidential draft Initial Public Offering (IPO) registration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This puts the company on track for a June listing.
The filing would position SpaceX as the first of three anticipated mega-IPOs this year, ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic.
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For context, in a confidential IPO filing, a company can receive comments and feedback from the SEC and make corrections or adjustments before any information becomes public.
SpaceX could target a valuation above $1.75 trillion. The IPO could raise as much as $75 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would more than double Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion IPO in 2019, which held the record.
According to people familiar with the matter, SpaceX has enlisted Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley for senior roles on the offering.
SpaceX is also weighing a dual-class share structure. This would grant insiders like Elon Musk enhanced voting power.
Nonetheless, the path to a June listing is not without headwinds. Equity markets have been volatile due to the US-Iran conflict and elevated oil prices.
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The post SpaceX Files for IPO That Could Dwarf Saudi Aramco’s Record appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Onchain investigator ZachXBT accused Circle of failing to act while millions in stolen USDC moved freely through its own cross-chain bridge during the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit.
The criticism followed the April 1 attack on the Solana-based decentralized exchange, which ranks as the largest DeFi exploit of 2026 so far.
Circle Faces Backlash Over CCTP Inaction
Drift Protocol, a perpetual futures platform on Solana (SOL), suffered a massive vault drain on April 1. Security firm PeckShield and blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence flagged roughly $285 million in outflows from Drift’s main vault to attacker-controlled wallets.
The attacker moved stolen assets, heavily involving USDC, across multiple wallets before bridging them from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).
ZachXBT pointed out the transfers occurred during U.S. business hours with no intervention.
Circle was asleep while many millions of USDC were swapped via CCTP from Solana to Ethereum for hours from the 9-figure Drift hack during US hours,” the blockchain investigator stated.
Security researcher Specter echoed those concerns. He noted that the attacker held USDC across wallets for 1 to 3 hours before swapping and deliberately avoided converting to Tether (USDT) during the bridging process, suggesting confidence that Circle would not freeze the funds.
A Pattern of Contradictory Responses
The timing intensified frustration. Just days before the Drift exploit, Circle froze the USDC balances of 16 unrelated business hot wallets on March 23, as part of a sealed U.S. civil case.
That action disrupted operations for exchanges, casinos, and payment processors.
ZachXBT previously called that freeze potentially the most incompetent he had seen in over five years. He argued that, based on on-chain analysis, the wallets engaged in legitimate activity.
Circle later unfroze one wallet linked to Goated.com on March 26, but most remained locked.
The contrast is stark. Circle acted aggressively on a civil matter affecting legitimate businesses. Yet during a confirmed nine-figure exploit, it took no steps to freeze stolen funds transiting its own infrastructure.
ZachXBT also tied this behavior to Circle’s proposed optional privacy features on its upcoming Arc blockchain. He suggested those features could reduce compliance accountability further by limiting who can view transactions.
What Comes Next for Circle and Drift
On the Ethereum side, stolen assets were swapped for roughly 129,000 ETH. Drift’s total value locked collapsed from approximately $550 million to $247 million, and its native DRIFT token fell nearly 28%.
Circle has not publicly responded to the criticism. The incident has reignited debate over whether centralized stablecoin issuers can justify their freeze authority if they apply it inconsistently.
The post ZachXBT Slams Circle for Letting Millions in Stolen USDC Flow Freely After Drift Hack appeared first on BeInCrypto.
The U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule Monday that would open 401(k) retirement accounts to cryptocurrencies and other alternative assets – a direct implementation of President Trump’s August executive order and a structural shift that puts up to $12 trillion in retirement capital within reach of digital asset markets for the first time under a formal regulatory framework.
The proposal does not explicitly approve crypto for retirement plans. What it does is create a safe harbor for ERISA-governed plan managers who choose to include digital assets, provided they follow a defined fiduciary process – removing the single biggest legal deterrent that kept virtually every 401(k) administrator on the sidelines until now.
- Market size: Up to $12 trillion in 401(k) assets could gain access to crypto and other alternatives under the proposed rule, against a $48 trillion total U.S. retirement market.
- Safe harbor structure: Plan managers must evaluate risk/return, fees, liquidity, valuation, and complexity – but face no explicit ban or approval of specific assets.
- Timeline: A 60-day public comment period follows Federal Register publication; finalization expected within months, with Indiana’s state-level crypto mandate taking effect July 1, 2027.
- Regulatory origin: OIRA cleared the proposal March 24, 2026, marking it “economically significant” – the highest regulatory classification, signaling broad expected market impact.
Discover: Top Crypto Presales to Watch Before They Launch
How the DOL Proposal Actually Unlocks 401(k) Capital for Crypto
The mechanism is more precise than the headline suggests, and that precision matters enormously for how fast capital actually moves. Under ERISA, plan fiduciaries have always had the legal authority to consider alternative assets – the Labor Department acknowledged this directly in its statement.
The barrier was not statutory prohibition but regulatory ambiguity: a 2022 Biden-era compliance release urged plan managers to apply “extreme caution” to crypto, effectively signaling that inclusion would attract enforcement scrutiny. The DOL rescinded that guidance in May 2025, clearing the first obstacle.
The new proposal completes the regulatory architecture.
First, it defines digital assets formally as “a new form of investing that includes a wide variety of assets that can be stored and transmitted digitally, including cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and other tokens” – giving plan administrators a documented regulatory definition to anchor their fiduciary analysis.
Second, it establishes a uniform evaluation framework requiring assessment of performance history, fee structures, liquidity profiles, valuation methodologies, and complexity disclosures.
Third, it extends ERISA’s existing fiduciary standard – care, skill, prudence, and diligence – explicitly to alternative asset selection, meaning a manager who follows the process has a defensible legal position even if the asset underperforms.
Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling framed the shift directly: “Our rule clearly spells out that managers must evaluate any and all potential product offerings by following a prudent process.”
That framing matters because it removes the asymmetric risk that previously defined the decision – where inclusion created legal exposure and exclusion did not. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the proposal as “an initial step in implementing the President’s Executive Order in a safe and smart manner, broadening access to additional retirement plan options for millions of Americans.”
The most important variable now is not regulatory intent – it is whether the comment period produces material revisions that narrow the asset definition or tighten the liquidity requirements enough to functionally exclude most crypto products.
Discover: Best Crypto Exchanges for Active Traders in 2026
The post US Labor Department Proposes Opening 401(k) Plans to Crypto appeared first on Cryptonews.
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Krypto: Wenn Du im Minus bist, dann schau Dir das an.
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