New Crypto Guidance Rewrites Rules on 401(k) Brokerage Windows

New cryptocurrency guidance from the U.S. Labor Department threatens to upend the way regulators treat workplace retirement plans that allow participants to trade individual stocks and bonds on their own.

Under that guidance, which the DOL issued last month, employers could be responsible for risky crypto trades their workers make in workplace 401(k)s. The DOL’s employee benefits enforcement agency will launch what it’s calling “an investigative program” that requires plan officials to “square their actions with their duties of prudence and loyalty” if they allow crypto investments in self-directed accounts, according to the guidance.

Brokerage windows historically have been ...