Trump Pushes to Allow Virtual Assets in $12 Trillion U.S. Retirement Pension Market

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly working to open the nearly $9 trillion (approximately ₩12,000 trillion) U.S. retirement pension market to alternative investment assets such as virtual assets (cryptocurrencies), gold, and private equity funds.

On the 17th (local time), the Financial Times (FT), citing three sources familiar with the matter, reported, "President Trump is expected to sign a related executive order as early as this week."

The executive order is expected to allow 401k plan participants—the U.S.'s flagship retirement pension system—to invest in a variety of alternative assets, such as virtual assets, precious metals, private equity funds, infrastructure funds, M&A (mergers & acquisitions) funds, and private credit products, in addition to traditional assets like stocks and bonds.

The White House stated, "President Trump is dedicated to protecting the economic future of the American people," and added, "However, no decision should be considered final until President Trump makes an official announcement."

In May, the Department of Labor withdrew the "401k virtual asset investment avoidance recommendation" established during the Joe Biden administration, moving towards deregulation. The Trump administration's actions are seen as accelerating this trend.

This is also expected to be a positive development for private equity fund managers. Global asset management firms such as Blackstone, Apollo, and BlackRock see attracting general retirement pension investors' funds into alternative investments as a future growth driver. Apollo and Partners Group are planning to supply private equity products to Empower, one of the largest 401k plan providers in the U.S. BlackRock has already begun collaboration with Great Gray Trust, an external custodian for 401k plans.

In particular, the executive order plans to require the Department of Labor to review the introduction of a "safe harbor" provision for 401k plan operators. This is a safeguard that would provide legal liability protection if certain conditions are met, even if investment targets are not transparently traded like public stocks.

Meanwhile, following this news, Bitcoin surpassed $120,000 again. This is driven by expectations that hundreds of billions of dollars could flow into the virtual asset market due to the executive order. On this day, Bitcoin is trading around $120,300 on the Binance Tether (USDT) market, a 0.5% increase from the previous day.