Fidelity, the largest retirement plan provider in the United States, plans to offer bitcoin in 401(k) retirement accounts. Dave Gray, head of workplace retirement offerings and platforms at the asset manager, told the Wall Street Journal that employers will be able to lower the cap on the allocation of up to 20% of 401(k) accounts to bitcoin.
The Boston-based asset manager, which administers plans covering more than 20 million participants representing $2.7 trillion in assets, said the launch is expected to take place by mid-year, debuting at MicroStrategy, which holds billions of dollars of the asset.
Fidelity's Digital Assets Account will hold both short-term and long-term money market investments in order to give investors the ability to engage in daily transactions if they choose to do so. Fidelity Digital Assets will hold the currency in order to ensure institutional-grade security.
The move from Fidelity, which administers plans covering more than 20 million participants, comes just a month after the U.S. Department of Labor told plan fiduciaries to exercise extreme care. The agency was worried about custodial issues given the near-impossibility of recovering funds from a wallet if one were to forget their password.
Fidelity plans to offer other cryptocurrencies in the future, Gray said. The company has been at the forefront of its peers in its digital asset offerings.
The price of the digital currency has fallen from its high in November last year.
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