Forbes: "Allowing U.S. Retirement Pension Crypto Investments Will Bring Major Change"

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order fully permitting investment in virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) through 401(k) retirement accounts. The industry has evaluated this move as a critical measure that will accelerate the institutionalization of virtual assets and the inflow of long-term funds.

On the 7th (local time), according to Forbes, Joe DiPasquale, CEO of the virtual asset hedge fund BitBull Capital, stated, “Millions of Americans will now be able to access virtual assets through the familiar retirement savings system,” and described it as “a big step toward mainstream adoption of virtual assets.”

He added, “If Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are included as alternative assets, a tremendous amount of capital could flow in over the long term,” and “this structural increase in demand will help reduce volatility and broaden the investor base.”

Tim Enneking, managing partner of Psalion, commented, “This executive order will have a particularly strong impact on virtual assets,” adding, “If massive U.S. retirement funds start flowing into virtual assets, the legitimacy of the asset class as a whole will be further strengthened.”

However, he also remarked, “It will take time for regulatory authorities such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to prepare related regulations,” and “because retirement funds tend to be conservative, a rapid inflow of funds in the short term is unlikely.” He added, “In the long run, the current virtual asset market capitalization of $4 trillion is expected to grow much larger.”

Brian Hwang, co-founder of Glider, stated, “This executive order sets a precedent for retirement pensions to include any type of virtual asset,” saying, “This is the first step toward a future that will go beyond just holding Bitcoin and include on-chain stocks, real assets (RWA), and tokenized private equity funds.”

Tom Bruni, vice president of Stocktwits, remarked, “This measure is likely to accelerate crypto adoption by individual investors and become a catalyst for trillions of dollars in new capital, both directly and indirectly, flowing into the crypto market.”

He went on to say, “The Individual Retirement Account (IRA) market has already allowed crypto investments, but some providers still restrict access even to traditional products like ETFs,” and predicted, “With this measure, the remaining providers will also likely permit crypto investments to maintain market share.”