The company suing the US Labor Department over guidance it issued earlier this year warning retirement plans of the dangers of offering cryptocurrency investments has launched the nation’s first crypto 401(k) brokerage window.
ForUsAll Inc. took its Alt401(k) plan live with 50 companies, it said Thursday. The platform allows employees at those companies to invest part of their workplace savings in riskier growth assets such as Bitcoin and Etherium in addition to traditional securities.
Fidelity Investments Inc. also announced this fall that it would begin allowing plans it administers to put Bitcoin on their investment menus.
A Fidelity spokesperson confirmed Thursday that the company has already gone live with customers, but declined to say how many plans are offering crypto investments.
Many of San Francisco-based ForUsAll’s clients are fintech firms that already work with crypto assets. The company said it expects to roll out the investment platform to more than 100 companies later this year.
“Despite the recent downturn, cryptocurrency has been one of the fastest growing asset classes over the last decade because it is the predominant way people invest in blockchain technology,” David Ramirez, ForUsAll’s co-founder and CEO, said in an email Thursday.
ForUsAll has been at the forefront of a simmering controversy over crypto 401(k)s since it sued the Labor Department in June over subregulatory guidance the department’s employee benefits agency issued this year threatening federal investigations against plans that opt into digital asset investing.
The guidance warned plan sponsors that cryptocurrency investments are volatile and difficult to accurately value in the market. ForUsAll said in its lawsuit that the agency’s threats amount to a ban on digital currency investing that subverts the federal rulemaking process.
It’s unclear whether the department will launch investigations into any or all of ForUsAll’s clients. The department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
ForUsAll’s crypto plan offers digital investments through a brokerage window, which exists outside the core plan lineup of investments and gives workers access to a broader scope of on- and off-market growth vehicles.
Alt401(k) plans feature an in-plan brokerage window that lets workers transfer up to 5% of their savings into more than 50 different cryptocurrencies. ForUsAll says it closely monitors crypto allocations and will alert employees when their allocation exceeds 5% of their portfolio.
The company says it offers its clients’ workers risk-focused employee education, robust risk disclosures, and even a quiz they must first pass that demonstrates their understanding of crypto investing risks.
source : fastmlsflyers.com
