Waters asked the department to scrap a 401(k) proposal that would open retirement plans to private markets, commodities and digital assets, arguing crypto investor protections remain unfinished.
Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter on the 26th urging acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to immediately withdraw a proposal that would allow 401(k) plans to invest in alternative assets, including private equity, private credit, real estate, commodities and digital assets. Waters argued it was contradictory to treat digital assets as appropriate for retirement savings while the SEC is still building investor protections, and said the digital-asset ecosystem has broadly deteriorated. The intervention adds political pressure to a retirement-policy debate over whether workers’ long-term savings should be exposed to less liquid, harder-to-value or more volatile assets outside traditional stocks and bonds. The 401(k) system covers about 90 million Americans and roughly $14.2 trillion in defined-contribution retirement assets.