SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said “the time is right” for retirement plans including 401(k)s to include cryptocurrency, while CFTC Chairman Michael Selig predicted that digital assets will “thrive” once Congress finalizes rules on the structure of the U.S. market.
The comments in an interview with CNBC were made as lawmakers on the Senate Agriculture Committee began drafting a crypto market structure bill, legislation that could expand the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and clarify the limits of oversight with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The committee took less than an hour to submit the bill to the full Senate, although it still has a long way to go before it can become law.
“A lot of people already have exposure to crypto and other types of assets like that through their pension funds,” Atkins said. “I think now is the time to move forward on this,” Atkins said, “but in a measured way, with safeguards to protect retirees.”
The Department of Labor has previously said that fiduciaries should “exercise extreme caution before considering adding a cryptocurrency option to a 401(k) plan’s investment menu for plan participants.” In August 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing crypto investments in 401(k) retirement plans, opening the door for a $10 trillion market to flow into the asset class. The White House said at the time that alternative assets, including digital assets, offered competitive returns and diversification benefits.
Selig, for his part, said the crypto industry is at a pivotal moment with regulations about to be approved, and presented an optimistic future for digital assets. He also said it was time to bring blockchain companies that have migrated elsewhere due to lack of regulatory clarity back to the United States.
“Blockchain technology has now been around for about 15 years and it’s really transforming the way that these markets actually develop within our mandate,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of these technologies and assets move overseas and we want to bring them back. »
Selig expressed confidence in the legislation with the SEC and CFTC working together to finalize “the national rules of the road that will allow the asset class to thrive here in America.”
“If we can set the standard in the United States, which is really a benchmark for crypto asset markets, we will see a lot of new types of products, a lot of new types of on-chain markets and financial applications, which will take us into the future and make us the number one place to do business to offer digital assets.”
