Senator Elizabeth Warren has written directly to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins asking him to explain how the SEC plans to serve its mission of investor protection as it seeks to support President Trump’s order to make cryptocurrency investments available in retirement plans.
President Trump signed an executive order in August clearing a path for alternative assets including cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and private equity funds to be offered more broadly across traditional retirement plans such as 401(k) plans.
“For most Americans, their 401(k) represents a lifeline to retirement security rather than a playground for financial risk. Allowing crypto into American retirement accounts creates fertile ground for workers and families to lose big,” the Massachusetts Democrat, who is ranking member on the on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, wrote to Atkins in a letter on Monday obtained exclusively by CNBC. “Given the threats from crypto’s volatility, the market’s lack of transparency, and potential conflicts of interest, I am concerned that the Trump Administration’s decision to allow these risky assets to be part of such critical retirement investments threatens millions of Americans’ retirement security.”
Warren cited a 2024 Government Accountability Office study which found that “crypto assets have uniquely high volatility” and “there is no standard approach for projecting the potential future returns of crypto assets.”
She also pointed to President Trump’s own flip-flop on crypto, from a 2021 comment from the president that bitcoin “seems like a scam” to an estimate from left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress that in the roughly one-year period after his reelection in November 2024, President Trump and his family had amassed over $1.2 billion in financial gains from crypto.
“There is no reason to expect that inviting plans to offer these alternative investments will lead to better outcomes overall for participants — especially considering the higher fees and expenses that typically come with them. But there is ample reason to think these investment options will make things worse by increasing the risk of large losses for participants, most of whom can ill afford them,” Warren wrote to the SEC.
The senator sent the letter the same week two Senate committees will hold hearings to work on their parts of a crypto market structure bill. In the letter, Sen. Warren wrote that the president’s executive order “comes as Congress considers crypto market structure legislation that could create a tokenization loophole through which nearly any financial product offered on the blockchain could sidestep the SEC’s authority to regulate securities — risking Americans’ retirement savings and investments.”
Warren is not alone in warning about the broader financial dangers that may result from the Trump administration’s crypto regulatory approach. Several major unions have publicly voiced their concerns, including the American Federation of Teachers and AFL-CIO. The unions are also worried that that administration plan to allow tokenization of financial products could handicap the SEC’s authority to regulate securities, which would also create new risks for Americans’ retirement savings and investments.
In her letter, Warren asked the SEC to respond to the following questions so she can better understand how the SEC plans to mitigate risks related to crypto:
In requiring publicly traded companies that hold, issue, or invest in cryptocurrencies to provide disclosures on crypto asset liquidity, impairment risks, and market volatility, has the SEC ensured that the valuations reflected in disclosures are fair market value given the volatility crypto securities often experience?
Has the SEC’s Division of Risk and Analysis assessed the use of manipulative or deceptive practices in crypto markets? If not, does it plan to publish research for retail investor awareness? What investor awareness does SEC Office of Investor Education and Assistance provide for retail investors that may purchase crypto assets traditionally or through retirement plans following the Trump Administration’s recent executive order?
Through a spokesman, the SEC declined to comment on Warren’s letter.
The Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance and Atkins previous statements suggest that Warren’s point of view isn’t likely to hold much sway with the SEC, though Atkins has stressed that crypto innovation needs to be balanced with investor protection. Back in August, when discussing the SEC’s “Project Crypto” on CNBC, Atkins said the goal after the “gauntlet Trump has laid down is to make America the crypto capital of the world.”
“There are lots of ways we can help do that,” he said, including “good rules fit for the purposes of the crypto industry, so innovators can innovate and investors know what they are investing in, and everyone can have certainty. … Investor protection is foremost in our mind as well as capital formation and innovation in capital markets, so there is a balance there.”
In a more recent December appearance on CNBC, Atkins stressed that his approach as SEC chair will diverge from the approach of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler who looked to aggressively regulate the industry. Under Atkins, the SEC is going to “forge forward with the crypto area and make sure we are able to embrace this new area of innovation that for too long the U.S. basically has just pushed back against,” he said.
Atkins laid out many of the details in his broader vision for crypto innovation and regulation, including the key issue of tokenization of assets, in a speech in November to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In that speech, the SEC chair also said, “Now, let me be clear about what this framework is not. It is not a promise of lax enforcement at the SEC. Fraud is fraud. … if you raise money by promising to build a network, and then take the proceeds and disappear, you will be hearing from us, and we will pursue you to the full extent of the law.”
