Fidelity to allow Bitcoin investment in 401(k) plans

Fidelity is set to be the first major retirement investment group to allow 401k account holders to add Bitcoin to their portfolios.

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Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency might be a volatile market, but that doesn’t stop various companies from taking the trend and trying to make something more mainstream and long-lasting out of it. Such could be considered the case as major investment group Fidelity announced it will allow Bitcoin to be added to 401k retirement accounts later this year. It will be one of the first major retirement plan provider to offer this option.

Fidelity’s plans for integrating Bitcoin options into retirement portfolios was announced recently, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. While the company isn’t making Bitcoin an available choice for 401k investment just yet, it will begin offering the option to over 23,000 companies that use its services to provide retirement accounts to employees and customers later in 2022.

“There is a need for a diverse set of products and investment solutions for our investors,” said Fidelity head of workplace retirement offerings and platforms Dave Gray. “We fully expect that cryptocurrency is going to shape the way future generations think about investing for the near term and long term.”

A look at Bitcoin's value shows massive fluctuations over the course of the last year as the price has been a rollercoaster of peaks and dips due to various factors.
A look at Bitcoin's value shows massive fluctuations over the course of the last year as the cryptocurrency has experienced a rollercoaster of peaks and dips due to various factors.

Fidelity appears to be moving forward with the decision to allow Bitcoin as an option in 401k investment despite continued volatility of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole. The price of Bitcoin by itself has fluctuated massively since this time in 2021 alone. It reached a near-$65,000 USD high per unit once it was listed on cryptocurrency platform Coinbase in April 2021. However, it then fluctuated wildly throughout the year on news of it being adopted for payment and then dropped by Tesla, as well as cryptocurrency being banned outright in transactions and services by the People’s Bank of China. As of this writing, Bitcoin sits just above $40,400 per unit with these fluctuations having hit bigger highs and also dropping massively over the last year.

Even so, cryptocurrency and NFTs remain an attractive and trending subject for investors despite the risk. As Fidelity prepares to offer Bitcoin on 401k retirement plans in 2022, stay tuned for further details and updates on the matter here at Shacknews.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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