Allison Schrager, Columnist

Bitcoin in Your 401(k)? That’s Not a Risk I Would Take

As they enter the financial mainstream, cryptocurrencies present both investors and consumers with new kinds of dangers.

July 23, 2025 at 11:00 AM UTC

By Allison Schrager

Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.”

But does it belong in your 401(k)?
Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg

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I have long been a crypto skeptic, but as it worms its way into America’s financial infrastructure, it is getting harder and harder for me to maintain the argument that it will crash and burn. So I have revised my opinion. Crypto does have a future — as a speculative asset that enhances risk for gamblers, the paranoid, and less sophisticated investors, all the while diverting capital from more productive uses.

See? I told you I had changed my mind.