Labor Department Crypto Stance Verges on Total Investment Ban

The U.S. Labor Department’s recent cryptocurrency guidance has doused an alternative retirement investment class that was heating up among younger 401(k) savers eager to capitalize on what they saw as inflation-resistant gains.

The agency’s guidance (No. 2022-01) sends a clear message to plan sponsors interested in adding digital currencies to their lineups — that such a move risks triggering a full-scale federal investigation.

“It’s pretty clearly saying, ‘If you’ve done this, you’d better watch out, because we’re coming,’” said Paul Hamburger, a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP in Washington, D.C. “I’ve never seen that, going back decades. ...