Finance

Fidelity to Offer Bitcoin Exposure to 401(k) Investors

APR 26 2022·Updated JAN 20 2023

Story

Image credit: Getty Images [via The New York Times]

The Facts

Fidelity Investments, the largest provider of tax-advantaged 401(k) retirement savings plans in the US, announced that it will offer some investors a chance to invest in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
nytimes
The investment giant's new digital assets account would only be available to investors whose employers have opted to add Bitcoin as a new investment asset.
CNN
Fidelity is responding to organic requests from retirement plan sponsors - employers who contract with Fidelity to manage investments on behalf of their employees - according to Dave Gray, Fidelity's head of workplace retirement offerings.
nytimes
The crypto landscape remains volatile, and Fidelity's planned addition comes amidst warnings from the US Labor Dept., which didn't offer any specific guidance for plan sponsors on the topic.
wapo
Vanguard, the nation's second-largest investment fund manager, doesn't have plans to offer Bitcoin; existing literature cautions investors about the swings and impracticality of the crypto as a medium of exchange.
wapo
Roughly 80M individual investors in the US currently hold or have previously invested in some cryptocurrency, according to Fidelity.
FOX News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

This will give Fidelity investors a means of accessing a new monetary technology with the potential to revolutionize banking and finance.

FOX News

Narrative B

This is dangerous. Bitcoin remains inherently speculative and volatile. Employers and fund managers alike have a fiduciary duty to protect investors from an asset category that is insufficiently understood and regulated.

nytimes

Cynical narrative

"Not your keys, not your coin." Bitcoin purists know that if you don't hold the coin yourself on a hard wallet protected by your own 12 (or 24) word seed phrase, then you don't actually hold any Bitcoin. Your assets could be subject to forfeiture or seizure.