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Bitcoin Businesses

Fidelity Will Allow Investors Access To Bitcoin In Their 401(k)s (fortune.com) 41

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
In a first-of-its-kind move -- and the latest sign that crypto-investing has gone mainstream -- Fidelity Investments announced Tuesday that 401(k) plan participants will soon be able to invest in Bitcoin via their retirement plan. Reader BeerFartMoron writes: The investing option should be available by mid-year, Fidelity, the nation's largest 401(k) plan provider, said in a press release. Employers will need to opt into the change, which may limit which employees actually have access to Bitcoin in their workplace retirement accounts. That could enable millions of people to invest in the digital asset without the need to set up a separate account on a cryptocurrency exchange. There are few details currently available about how exactly the account will work, but Fidelity says employees will be able to invest in Bitcoin via what the company is calling the Digital Assets Account, which will be part of the investor's 401(k). That account will also hold short-term money market investments to provide the liquidity for transactions.
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Fidelity Will Allow Investors Access To Bitcoin In Their 401(k)s More

Fidelity Will Allow Investors Access To Bitcoin In Their 401(k)s

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  • Options next? (Score:1, Troll)

    by splutty ( 43475 )

    I wonder what will be next. People can 'invest' in Options? Or maybe the can 'invest' in naked shorts through some Cayman subsidiary where it's not illegal?

    This is the height of idiocy...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      Not quite. Remember efforts a decade or so ago to privatize (eliminate?) Social Security? This is kinda like that, just with Fidelity instead of the US Government. They'll make a fortune watching their clients' 401k's fade from black. Any guesses who'll lose?

    • To enable Options trading, foreign exchange trading, etc. - at least you do on Fidelity. I'm guessing this will also require you to sign something that specifically absolves them of any responsibility. It's a shame though, as a very long time Fidelity customer they've always been good but this is chasing HOOD "investors".

      • Re:You have to sign a waiver. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by splutty ( 43475 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @02:20PM (#62481398)

        Frankly, for something like a 401k, that should just be illegal, not 'waiver optional'.

        People are absolutely terrible at judging risk, and when your pension is at stake, there really is a case to be made to protect people from themselves.

        • Frankly, for something like a 401k, that should just be illegal, not 'waiver optional'.

          People are absolutely terrible at judging risk, and when your pension is at stake, there really is a case to be made to protect people from themselves.

          Exactly. I've seen people hit 55, panic because suddenly they realize that they are going to eventually retire, and then attended meetings with Investment counselors, who further scared the crap out of them with ideas like if they didn't have 2.5 million in liquid funds available, they'd end up living under a bridge.

          So here come the risky investments. And more often then not, they lost a lot of money.

          But yeah - I'd say most people are simply not good at judging money matters. I had a guy tell me it was

          • If your mortgage interest was 3-4% but you are earning 8-10% yearly in stonks, it’s not a bad play if you have more free money per month to sock away towards investments.

            • If your mortgage interest was 3-4% but you are earning 8-10% yearly in stonks, it’s not a bad play if you have more free money per month to sock away towards investments.

              Well - if you know for a fact that you will be making that much in stocks..

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
            Well the person in question might have needed the extra cashflow a 30yr mortgage provides during the life if said mortgage. While in general it is smarter to pay down as fast as possible to reduce total costs 25 years is a rather significant portion if a persons life, so nit needing ti watch every cent always during that time might be worth the extra cost. s long as people weigh the oro and cons (including the increased risk of the longer commitment with the 39yr vs the 25 year) I see no orobkem with this

            • Well the person in question might have needed the extra cashflow a 30yr mortgage provides during the life if said mortgage.

              It's possible they bought too much house. Certainly it is a decision that will cost them a lot What's a lot?

              Take out a $100,000 loan @ 5% interest for 30 years, and you pay $93,256 interest.

              Take out a $100,000 loan @ 5% interest for 15 years, and you pay $42,000 interest.

              Plus 15 years of no payment to do with as they like.

              So if it is more suitable for a person to pay $51,256 dollars more to increase the amount of money they pay out I guess that is a decision to be made, but so many only look at that

          • I get the premise, but at 2-3% interest a 30 year mortgage was basically free money. There is absolutely no reason to pay off debt that cheap quickly, in the vast majority of circumstances. You can take the difference in your payment on a 30 year mortgage and invest it in any number of other things and come out way ahead, versus paying more quickly on a 15 year mortgage (even with a marginally lower interest rate). Plus the lower payment allows some cushion in a budget in case you hit hard times, versus

    • Next: online gambling with your 401K. Oh, wait...

      • Next: online gambling with your 401K. Oh, wait...

        Remember - some people's retirement program involves winning PowerBall.

    • I wonder what will be next. People can 'invest' in Options? Or maybe the can 'invest' in naked shorts through some Cayman subsidiary where it's not illegal?

      This is the height of idiocy...

      While you've been modded as Troll, you are correct. I'd seen several cases where people are blinded by greed - smart people who should know better.

      In some TIAA-Cref retirement plans, you can choose the level of risk you want to take, these folk would take all aggressive options. I had a friend who invested in Dot-Com stocks. He used to come down and brag about his money. He was about 2 million in the late 90's. Then the bubble burst. But greed being greed, he held on in the hopes that his losses would

      • I completely agree Bitcoin is risky, but I’ve generally found people get a holier than thou attitude and laugh “see I told you see!” after every correction when in reality it’s been a constant gainer and the best performing asset since it’s inception. Does this mean it will continue to be? Absolutely not. But if you are truly an investor and by that I mean a buy-and-hold person, you’re not supposed to panic and worry about day to day fluctuations. The true test is what w

        • I completely agree Bitcoin is risky, but I’ve generally found people get a holier than thou attitude and laugh “see I told you see!” after every correction when in reality it’s been a constant gainer and the best performing asset since it’s inception. Does this mean it will continue to be? Absolutely not. But if you are truly an investor and by that I mean a buy-and-hold person, you’re not supposed to panic and worry about day to day fluctuations. The true test is what will it be 10-30 years from now, not what it is this month.

          As I've explained to a lot of people - the important part of your retirement money total isn't what you have ten years before you retire - it's what you have the day you retire

          Gotta convert that bitcoin to dollars at some point.

        • I look at it this way. You invest into the market for your retirement because in the long term if the market goes THAT BAD, you are screwed regardless. The no man is an island thing comes in here.

          Even with your completely self-sustainable home and vegetable garden, if society collapses bad enough that the market dies, you are still going to suffer and likely die prematurely. If the hordes don't get you, lack of proper medical infrastructure surely will.

      • To be fair here, a lot of people opt for "more aggressive" or "most aggressive" stock investment choices because the return has been so poor in general, and there's the presumption that with a whole portfolio of stocks being purchased in bundles, it's not going to be THAT risky anyway.

        I'd blame the retirement fund itself if it allows its "most aggressive" portfolios to be full of really bad bets. I mean, these ARE retirement funds after all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by splutty ( 43475 )

        Being marked troll when saying anything negative about crypto currency is pretty much normal here now, so I'm not surprised. "They" still don't manage to get the score negative, though, so that's really funny.

        • Being marked troll when saying anything negative about crypto currency is pretty much normal here now, so I'm not surprised. "They" still don't manage to get the score negative, though, so that's really funny.

          Well, there are people who make a lot of money by not having to pay out profits for coin crashes. I suspect they don't want any negative comments about their grift.

        • Actually getting marked as troll for discussing Crypto is default behavior here for both pro & anti crypto comments. Same for trump biden and vax/mask No idea whom this benefits or how. Maybe slashdot competitors
    • Bitcoin has been the best performing asset for the last 10 years. I don't care what the new option for a 401k is but if it has a track record of "best performance of any investment for a decade", I'd really consider maybe adding a little to my portfolio. Just based on logic and reason alone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by splutty ( 43475 )

        So did Madoff. And there's a reason I mention him. I'm sure you can guess what it is.

  • Not an investment. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You're not promoting growth of a business. At best, it's commodity. Except there's no tangible thing to be the commodity. So it's holding nothing (but a UNIQUE nothing) and hoping someone wants to buy that nothing for more than you paid for it. If no one wants to buy it (like bored apes), then you're left with nothing.

  • I'm not sure I'd interpret this as "Bitcoin going mainstream" and not "the world has gone mad".

    • I'm not sure I'd interpret this as "Bitcoin going mainstream" and not "the world has gone mad".

      This is just the latest version of a bubble. Turns out there's been quite a few of them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      My "Come to Jesus Moment" was in 2006 when I was listening to NPR, and they were interviewing a well known economist, who was saying that the housing bubble (didn't call it a bubble) was completely sustainable because the new normal was that people would be forever in debt to their house, bit it didn't matter because the new normal also included simply taking out home equity loans for

  • Must be the bubble (Score:3)

    by thunderclees ( 4507405 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @01:17PM (#62481212)

    So unless they are acting as the wallet its likely not Fidelity's loss if the wallet service decides to disappear or owner dies taking the keys to the grave or employees plunder the wallets, etc. etc.

  • Fidelity is atrocious when it comes to fiduciary responsibility. Fidelity does not care about your investments with them, does not matter if you win or lose, Fidelity always wins. Of course Fidelity is offering yet another bad investment option, what else would they do?

    • I agree that Fidelity is a terrible place to have your 401k although you don't have a choice. My current employer uses them. Anything I get from Fidelity, I assume it's a scam to cheat me out of my money. Usually it's marketing material that I find to be (intentionally or otherwise, but my opinion is that it's intentional) confusingly similar to plan documents to try to get you to take actions that benefit Fidelity. It's fairly short-sighted too. Want to get your money away from Fidelity? You have to

  • Alternate headline (Score:5, Funny)

    by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @02:35PM (#62481450) Journal

    "Fidelity will allow clients to lose their 401(k) funds even faster"

  • Hell no (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2022 @03:16PM (#62481556)
    this needs to stop. Now. Pretend assets should not allow to bleed into the broader economy. This is going to end in a monumental market crash and take all our jobs and homes with it. Like 2008 on steroids and carrying the Infinity Gauntlet while reciting the anti-life equation.

    • I wait for these big crashes and hope I have enough cash on hand to buy assets. The crash in 2007 was perfect for me as it got me my home. If the market can drag on for another year I should have a decent amount to hopefully capitalize on the next crash.

      My 401k is gonna go for a ride but it always comes back and I've got many years to go.

      It is quite sad that what really does look like a scam is some how legally allowed to flourish and do so much damage.

      Clearly, the people in charge of the world want things

      • you never know when the next crash will wipe you out. Especially if you're American as all it takes is a minor illness at the same time, losing your employer sponsored medical care and blamo, your savings are wiped out and you're one of those guys selling off your house for cheap.
  • There are no more pensions and now 401ks will get totally wiped out. In the short-term people will see some "great" returns and overspend outside of their retirement accounts. And then the music will come to an end and savers will be just as broke as the spendthrifts. At that point there won't be enough government money to bail everybody out. If I were a foreign actor looking to damage the US, I would consider this a gift from heaven.

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