Following the historic passage of three key cryptocurrency bills by the U.S. House of Representatives a few days ago, the Trump administration is preparing to drop a more powerful "depth charge." According to a major report by the Financial Times, U.S. President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order aimed at fundamentally reforming the retirement savings methods of Americans, allowing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, gold, private equity, and other "alternative assets" to be included in the 401(k) retirement plan, which has a scale of up to 9 trillion dollars.
As soon as this news broke, it immediately ignited intense discussions in the global financial market and cryptocurrency community. This is not just a policy shift; it may also be a gateway to open up massive long-term capital inflows into the cryptocurrency market. The market is holding its breath to see whether this flood of retirement savings from American households will become the "strongest driving force" pushing the next round of the cryptocurrency bull market.
Nine trillion dollars of fresh water
According to multiple informed sources, the core goal of this executive order is to break the long-standing situation where the U.S. 401(k) retirement plan can only invest in traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The order will clearly instruct various regulatory agencies in Washington, such as the Department of Labor, to re-examine and begin removing existing barriers that hinder alternative assets from being included in 401(k) professionally managed funds. The asset categories covered are extremely broad, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, precious metals like gold, private equity, private loans, corporate merger funds, and infrastructure-related assets.
Although the White House spokesperson has remained cautious about this news, stating that "unless the news comes from Trump himself, other sources should not be considered official decisions," the outside world generally interprets this as a prelude to a formal policy announcement. The Trump administration's move aims to provide more diversified investment options for tens of millions of American workers' retirement savings to cope with the return challenges in a low-interest-rate environment.
To understand the potential impact of this policy, one must first understand the massive scale of the U.S. pension market. The 401(k) plan is one of the most important retirement savings tools in the U.S. As of the first quarter of 2025, its total asset scale has reached an astonishing 8.9 trillion dollars, covering over 710,000 independent plans. The wealth accumulated by tens of millions of Americans forms a massive pool of "long money" that drives the stability of the U.S. financial market.
Traditionally, almost all of this capital has flowed into publicly traded stocks and bonds. The relaxation of this policy means that cryptocurrencies are expected to become a potential allocation option in this massive 9 trillion dollar capital pool.
In this regard, Dragonfly partner Omar analyzed that the total retirement assets in the United States have reached 43 trillion dollars, with nearly 9 trillion in 401(k) accounts. Even if cryptocurrencies can only obtain a 1% allocation from this, it will bring approximately 90 billion dollars in new capital inflow to the market. This is undoubtedly a strong driving force for the current cryptocurrency market, which has a total market value of about 4 trillion dollars, and will have a profound positive impact on its liquidity, market value, and institutional participation willingness.
The grand chess game of cryptocurrency
This move by the Trump administration is not without reason, but rather a continuation and climax of a series of pro-crypto policies. First, it is a direct counterattack against the policies of the previous Biden administration. In May of this year, the Trump administration's Department of Labor officially revoked the guidelines issued during Biden's term, which had strictly limited the inclusion of cryptocurrencies in investment options for 401(k) plans on the grounds of excessive risk.
Secondly, this also echoes the long-term efforts of the Republican Party in Congress. As early as 2022, Republican Congressman Peter Meijer proposed the Retirement Savings Modernization Act, attempting to incorporate digital assets into the framework of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, which, although unsuccessful, laid the groundwork for today's policy shift.
More importantly, this move comes just after the U.S. has passed three landmark cryptocurrency bills, clearly indicating that the Trump administration is playing a grand game, aiming to provide comprehensive support for the development of cryptocurrencies in the U.S., from legislation to capital access.
Before federal-level policies are officially implemented, market giants with keen insight have already made advance arrangements:
Asset management giant: Fidelity, with an asset management scale of 5.9 trillion dollars, was the first to launch retirement accounts allowing holders to invest in cryptocurrencies back in April this year, seizing the market opportunity.
State-level retirement funds: Local retirement funds, including those in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Jersey City, New Jersey, have also taken the lead in testing the waters by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin spot ETFs and other crypto assets.
International trends: This trend is also global. Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has announced that it is studying the diversification benefits of Bitcoin, while an anonymous pension fund in the UK has allocated 3% of its assets to Bitcoin.
A feast for private equity giants: In addition to cryptocurrencies, this executive order represents a potential feast for private equity giants such as Blackstone, Apollo, and BlackRock. These companies have pinned their hopes for future growth on managing funds from ordinary retirement savers and have actively established partnerships with large 401(k) plan sponsors like Vanguard and Empower.
A feast of wealth?
The proposed executive order by the Trump administration undoubtedly paints an extremely enticing prospect for the cryptocurrency market. Once the 9 trillion dollar pension market opens up, even a small trickle would be enough to have a huge impact on the prices and market structure of crypto assets.
However, amid the expectations of a celebration, risks and challenges cannot be overlooked. Critics warn that putting ordinary people's "retirement money" into high-volatility, low-liquidity alternative assets may expose them to greater financial risks. For regulators, finding a delicate balance between encouraging innovation, providing diverse options, and protecting investors will be the core challenge of future policy-making.
It is foreseeable that once the executive order is officially signed, cryptocurrencies will officially transform from a "high-risk speculative product" that is excluded from the mainstream financial system into a potential option in the retirement accounts of tens of millions of American families. This massive experiment led by the White House will not only redefine the meaning of "retirement savings," but will also profoundly shape the future landscape of global finance. Whether it will trigger a "strong pull" is what the market is waiting to see.