SEC Chair Paul Atkins supports crypto in 401(k) plans with safeguards for retirees

SEC Chair Paul Atkins has voiced support for allowing crypto investments in 401(k) retirement plans, provided they are managed carefully with protective guardrails.

Speaking alongside CFTC Chair Mike Selig in a CNBC interview today, Atkins addressed concerns raised by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who warned that allowing Americans to invest in crypto through retirement accounts could put workers and families at risk of major losses.

Atkins noted that many Americans already have indirect exposure to crypto through professionally managed pension funds. The goal is to carefully let 401(k) plans offer similar access but only under professional management and with protections for retirees.

“We’re talking about the 401(k)s now, where we have to do things with respect to the different markets very carefully. We’re focused right now on private securities, private equity funds, and things like that, where, again, a lot of people are already exposed to those in their managed pension funds,” Atkins said.

“And so we’re looking to allow people to have access to those through the 401k, through the professional management of what is allowed into their funds, their trustees that are looking after those funds. But I think the time is right, right to go forward with that in a measured way that has guardrails to protect the retirees,” he added.

Atkins also addressed ongoing legislative efforts around crypto regulation, noting the SEC has provided technical assistance to congressional committees for months.

Responding to longstanding discussions about potentially merging the SEC and CFTC, he described past regulatory coordination between the SEC and CFTC as “two different fortresses with a no man’s land in between.”

“In that no man’s land, there are a lot of bodies of failed and dead products that tried to go effective,” Atkins said, adding that the agencies are now focused on collaboration. “We’re out to collaborate and help people do their innovation, get to market, and give investors what they need.”

Selig expressed enthusiasm about pending legislation that would grant the CFTC authority to regulate spot markets for digital assets.

With clear legislation and coordinated regulation between the SEC and CFTC, the US has an opportunity to establish a “gold standard” for crypto markets, creating consistent rules that encourage innovation, support new products and on-chain financial applications, the CFTC chair noted.