SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said the time is “ripe” to include cryptocurrencies in retirement plans, including 401(k)s, while CFTC Chairman Michael Selig predicted that digital assets will “boom” once Congress finalizes U.S. market structure rules.
The comments in a CNBC interview came as members of the Senate Agriculture Committee began drafting a cryptocurrency market structure bill that could expand the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and clarify oversight boundaries with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the bill still has a long way to go before becoming law, the committee took less than an hour to send the bill to the full Senate.
“A lot of people already have exposure to cryptocurrencies and other similar assets through pension funds,” Atkins said. “I think now is the time to move forward with this, but in a measured way that protects retirees.”
The U.S. Department of Labor previously stated that fiduciaries “should exercise extreme caution before considering adding cryptocurrency options to a 401(k) plan participant’s investment menu.” In August 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing cryptocurrency investments in 401(k) retirement plans, opening the door to $10 trillion in market inflows into the asset class. The White House said at the time that alternative assets, including digital assets, can provide competitive returns and diversification benefits.
Selig said the crypto industry is at a critical juncture with regulations about to be approved and painted an optimistic future for digital assets. He also said that now is the time to bring back to the United States blockchain companies that have migrated elsewhere due to unclear regulations.
“Blockchain technology has been around for about 15 years and it’s really changing the way these markets develop within our remit,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of technology and assets move overseas and we want to bring them back.”
Selig is confident in collaborative legislation between the SEC and the CFTC to finalize “national rules that will allow this asset class to thrive in the United States.”
“If we can set standards in the United States that truly become the gold standard for crypto asset markets, we will see many new products, many new on-chain markets and financial applications that will take us into the future and make the United States the premier place to do business offering digital assets.”
