Would you add crypto to your retirement portfolio?

Marketplace All-in-One

Marketplace

News, Business

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might be able to before too long. Tax-protected retirement savings may soon allow riskier assets to be included in 401(k)s or 403(b)s, such as cryptocurrency accounts or private-equity investments. The gears for this were set in motion by presidential order yesterday, though the changes won't happen immediately. We'll learn more. And later in the program, we'll explore how tariffs are shaping business for both a Switzerland-based generic drugmaker and a Portland, Oregon-based building contractor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What can you throw into an official retirement portfolio? Maybe not the kitchen sink, but it soon could be riskier crypto assets.
0:10.3	I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. Tax-protected retirement savings could soon allow riskier assets to be included in the portfolio, such as cryptocurrency accounts or private equity investments in a 401k or 403B.
0:24.3	The gears for this were set in motion by presidential order yesterday, Marketplace's Henry Epp reports.
0:30.0	Managers of employer-sponsored retirement plans legally have to act in the best interest of employees.
0:36.2	That's largely kept them from venturing into
0:38.6	riskier investments like crypto. And just a few years ago, the Biden administration warned
0:43.8	fiduciaries to, quote, exercise extreme care around cryptocurrency. The Trump administration
0:49.7	nixed that guidance earlier this year. Now Trump is directing the Labor Department to clarify its stance
0:55.7	on alternative investments, including crypto, private equity, commodities, and real estate. The move could be a
1:02.3	boon for those industries opening an avenue to the trillions of dollars held in employee retirement
1:07.6	accounts. Changes won't happen immediately. The executive order gives
1:11.7	federal agencies over five months to review current rules around alternative investments
1:16.3	and suggest new ones. I'm Henry App for Marketplace. The CEO of generic drug maker
1:23.1	Sandoz, based in Basel, says the Trump administration's import taxes, 39% for Switzerland,
1:29.7	will not be enough to bring manufacturing of medicines back to U.S. soil.
1:34.3	Leanna Byrne, Marketplace, BBC, has more.
1:36.9	President Trump may want more pharmaceuticals made in America,
1:40.0	but one of the world's biggest generic companies says that's not happening anytime soon.
1:44.8	Sandoz essentially copies drugs where the patent has expired.
1:49.2	It doesn't have a massive presence in the US.
1:51.4	And the CEO, Richard Sainer, told the BBC, tariffs alone won't convince the company to build factories there.
1:57.0	It's not a cheap thing to do.
	...

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