Fidelity Adds Bitcoin to 401(k) Accounts

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  • Fidelity will add Bitcoin to 401(k) accounts later this year
  • The investment giant is the first such company to offer exposure to a Bitcoin 401(k)
  • Fidelity first got into Bitcoin in 2019 with a custody service

In a move that has long been heralded as a sign of mainstream adoption, investment giant Fidelity plans to allow investors to add Bitcoin to their 401(k)s, the first major retirement-plan provider to do so. The Wall Street Journal broke the story earlier today, noting that the option will be launched later this year for the 23,000 companies that use Fidelity to add the cryptocurrency to employees’ retirement plans. Fidelity has been one of the biggest institutional investors to get on board with digital assets, and this news is another indication of the potential they see in the space in the long term.

Fidelity Continues to Push the Bitcoin Envelope

Fidelity first got into the cryptocurrency game in 2019 when it opened up a Bitcoin custody service for institutional investors, an interest which has since spawned into Bitcoin and Ethereum trading funds. The company even pushed for a Bitcoin ETF in a meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in September last year.

News of the inclusion of Bitcoin in a 401(k) represents the biggest step Fidelity has yet made towards mainstream Bitcoin adoption however, and represents a new level of exposure. Dave Gray, head of workplace retirement offerings and platforms at Fidelity, told the Wall Street Journal that there exists a “need for a diverse set of products and investment solutions for our investors,” adding that the company “fully expect that cryptocurrency is going to shape the way future generations think about investing for the near term and long term.”

The hope of course is that companies are of the same mind, and although the Bitcoin community can’t expect there to be a glut of companies taking this position straight out of the gate, hopefully in time exposure to a Bitcoin 401(k) will increase.

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