LATEST: 🏦 Bitcoin is down about 50% from its all-time high, and once again the question comes back: should this thing really be inside the $12.5 trillion U.S. 401(k) system?
For critics, the answer is simple. Retirement money isn’t supposed to swing this hard. A drop like that isn’t just noise it can push retirement plans back years, especially for people close to pulling money out.
On the other side, the argument isn’t that Bitcoin isn’t volatile everyone knows it is. The point is timing and size. Someone with 25 or 30 years ahead of them can live through drawdowns if the exposure is small and managed. In that case, Bitcoin acts more like a risky growth bet than a retirement killer.
That’s where regulators get stuck. Employers are supposed to protect workers’ savings. A 50% drawdown creates real legal and trust issues, even if the long-term case still exists. That’s why access, when it’s allowed at all, usually comes with limits and warnings.
What matters most is this Bitcoin isn’t being laughed off anymore. It’s being weighed against the biggest pool of long-term money in the world. And whether it belongs there won’t be decided by one crash it’ll be decided by how well risk is handled over time.
No hype.
Just the reality of risk.