United States-based retirement plan provider, ForUsAll, is joining forces with Coinbase to allow clients to invest up to 5% of their portfolio assets in cryptocurrencies.The pension provider, which primarily serves small-to-medium-sized businesses, is working to offer exposure to more than 50 cryptocurrencies in a product called Alt 401(k).
The firm’s co-founder and chief investment officer, David Ramirez, acknowledged concerns regarding offering crypto products in pension portfolios due to their volatility, but argued that U.S. citizens will be at a “disadvantage” if they are not given the option of accessing crypto assets in their retirement plans:
“THE AVERAGE AMERICAN MAY BE AT A STRUCTURAL DISADVANTAGE RELATIVE TO LARGE INSTITUTIONS AND HIGH NET WORTH INDIVIDUALS, AND WE JUST DON’T THINK THAT’S RIGHT.”
ForUsAll handles $1.7 billion in retirement plan assets, which accounts for a small portion of the $22 trillion retirement-account markets.In the United States, a 401 plan is an employer-sponsored defined-contribution pension account defined in subsection 401 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Larger institutional investment firms such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab do not allow customers to directly buy or sell cryptocurrency in taxable accounts or individual retirement accounts. However, they can purchase shares in trusts that do invest in crypto assets from companies such as Grayscale Investments.