updraftplus domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131hustle domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131wpforms-lite domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131The U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule Monday that would establish a safe harbor for 401(k) fiduciaries who follow a defined review process when selecting alternative investment options – including funds with exposure to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets – potentially unlocking what the agency characterizes as an $8.8 trillion participant-directed retirement market spanning roughly 721,000 plans.
The proposal was submitted for public inspection through the Federal Register on March 30 and is scheduled for formal publication by Tuesday, initiating a standard 60-day public comment period.
We suspect the rule’s structural significance extends well beyond its immediate regulatory mechanics. By reanchoring fiduciary duty to process rather than outcome – and explicitly removing the outcome-based burden that Biden-era guidance had effectively imposed – the Labor Department has shifted the legal calculus for plan administrators from ‘avoid crypto’ to ‘document your review.’
That is a materially different compliance posture, and one that institutional product providers have been positioning toward since the prior guidance was rescinded last May.
Hardworking Americans deserve more options, not less, when they retire.
@POTUS & I are committed to clearing regulatory burdens so workers have access to financial alternatives they can choose from for their 401(k)s.https://t.co/sAodP4mTED pic.twitter.com/E5gKLeVUcr— Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer (@SecretaryLCD) March 30, 2026
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The proposed rule – formally titled Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives – operates under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal statute governing private-sector retirement plan administration.
The mechanism functions as follows: a plan fiduciary that conducts documented review across six specified dimensions – performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarking, and complexity – would receive safe harbor protection against liability claims arising from the selection of that investment option, regardless of subsequent asset performance.
That framing is notable because it does not constitute an endorsement of any particular asset class. The rule does not name Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any specific cryptocurrency – it establishes a procedural floor that, if met, insulates fiduciaries from litigation under ERISA’s duty-of-prudence standard.
The Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) submitted the proposal to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on January 13, 2026; OIRA completed its review, classifying the rule as “economically significant” and marking it “change approved,” between March 24 and 26 before DOL released it publicly.
Source: DOL
The rule carries out a directive from President Donald Trump’s August 7, 2025, executive order mandating that the DOL, Treasury, and SEC review and remove barriers to alternative assets – including private equity, real estate, and digital investments – within defined contribution plans. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer characterized the proposal as an effort to “align retirement investing with modern financial markets,” stating that “greater diversity will drive innovation and result in a major win for American workers, retirees, and their families.”
Current utilization benchmarks underscore how much headroom exists: the proposal’s own data indicate that only 4% of defined contribution plans offered any alternative investments last year, with a mere 0.1% of total assets allocated to them.
Separately, Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT), a freshman congressman who has made crypto access in retirement accounts a legislative priority this year, is introducing a bill Tuesday that would codify the August executive order into statutory law – a move that would insulate the policy from reversal by a future administration and potentially accelerate 401(k) provider adoption ahead of any final rulemaking.
EXPLORE: Crypto breakout alerts this week
Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
Daniel Frances is a technical writer and Web3 educator specializing in macroeconomics and DeFi mechanics. A crypto native since 2017, Daniel leverages his background in on-chain analytics to author evidence-based reports and deep-dive guides. He holds certifications from The Blockchain Council, and is dedicated to providing “information gain” that cuts through market hype to find real-world blockchain utility.
Vitalik Buterin says a new “fast confirmation rule” for Ethereum could give users a hard guarantee that a block will not be reverted after a single slot, or roughly 12 seconds, a change that would sharply reduce one of the network’s biggest practical frictions for exchanges, bridges and Layer-2 systems.
The proposal, described publicly by Ethereum Foundation researcher Julian Ma and endorsed by Buterin on X, is designed to narrow the gap between Ethereum’s strong security model and the slower confirmation times that still shape user experience across the ecosystem. In Buterin’s words, the mechanism “lets you get a hard guarantee that Ethereum will not revert after one slot (12 seconds). Security assumptions are (i) supermajority honest, (ii) network latency under ~3s. So one step below economic finality, but very strong for many use cases.”
That distinction matters. Ethereum finality remains the chain’s strongest settlement guarantee, but it comes with a much longer wait time. Ma said the fast confirmation rule, or FCR, cuts deposit times from Ethereum mainnet to L2s and centralized exchanges to about 13 seconds, which he described as an “80-98% reduction for most L2s and exchanges.”
For users, the immediate consequence is speed. For infrastructure providers, the bigger story is efficiency. Ma argued that slow mainnet confirmation has forced exchanges, bridges and rollups to operate around delay and uncertainty, especially when handling deposits or syncing market activity across chains. “Bridging funds from Ethereum to L2s and centralized exchanges is slow. Users wait minutes when using the canonical bridges,” he wrote. “The new Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR) solves that. It reduces deposit time from Ethereum L1 to L2s or exchanges to about 13 seconds.”
He added that the rule is expected to become “the new industry standard for L2s and exchanges,” and said it can begin rolling out in the coming months without a hard fork. That is a notable design choice. Rather than introducing a consensus change that requires network-wide coordination, FCR can be activated as clients implement it, with nodes able to run the rule automatically once support is live.
Ma’s explanation frames FCR as a middle ground between today’s heuristics and Ethereum’s formal finality. Most exchanges, L2s and solvers do not wait for finality now. Instead, they rely on a block-depth rule, or “k-deep,” essentially waiting for a transaction to be buried under enough subsequent blocks. FCR takes a different route: it counts attestations rather than blocks. According to Ma, that makes it structurally faster while also giving it a provable security model that k-deep lacks.
The trade-off is explicit. A fast-confirmed block is not finalized, and the guarantee depends on stricter assumptions than finality does. FCR assumes a synchronous network, which in practice means attestations arrive within about eight seconds, and it assumes no adversary controls more than 25% of staked ETH. Finality, by contrast, is designed to hold under asynchrony and up to a 33% adversarial threshold.
Even so, Ma argued the system degrades gracefully when conditions worsen. “If the network is slow, FCR has a built-in fallback mode. Instead of fast-confirming a block within 13 seconds, it may take slightly longer,” he wrote. “As soon as sufficiently many attestations are delivered, the block is fast-confirmed. In the worst-case, FCR falls back to finality.”
That fallback is central to the pitch. The mechanism does not pretend reorg risk disappears; it claims to reduce waiting time dramatically while retaining deterministic guarantees when its assumptions hold. Ma also stressed that if those assumptions do hold, a fast-confirmed block “will be finalized with certainty.”
At press time, ETH traded at $2,319.
Featured image created with DALL.E, char t from TradingView.com
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Bitcoin has slipped into standby mode as the weekend unfolds, with price action remaining compressed inside a familiar range. Volatility is muted, momentum is lacking, and traders are largely focused on well-defined scalp levels rather than expecting a decisive move. With the holiday period approaching, patience and precision are taking center stage as the market waits for its next real catalyst.
According to a recent update, analyst Lennaert Snyder noted that Bitcoin has once again entered a period of “weekend chop.” While he does not expect any major trending moves during this time, he has outlined several specific scalp scenarios and price traps he is monitoring closely to take advantage of short-term volatility.
If Bitcoin swipes the wick near $88,865 and tests the resistance box situated just above it, he will be hunting for scalp-short opportunities, specifically after failing to hold the level. Conversely, for those looking to go long, he is eyeing the $87,420 level, which marks the start of the previous impulse and a key support box. If the price tests this area, Snyder will be watching for clear reversal patterns to trigger a scalp-long.
However, if the market loses that “start impulse” support, the analyst believes a continuation short down to the $85,890 lows becomes highly probable. Once the price arrives at those deeper lows, he will pivot his strategy to wait for a reversal to long position.
Finally, Snyder identified a major breakout trigger: when Bitcoin can gain and hold $89,375 (the top of the resistance box), the analyst assumes the market will finally squeeze toward the $90,400 region. While he doesn’t expect this breakout to materialize before Monday, he has his alerts set and suggests traders take the time to enjoy their weekend.
In an X post, analyst Daan Crypto Trades observed that BTC is entering the weekend in a state of relative stagnation. The analyst suggested that this is an ideal window for traders to step back and rest, allowing for a mental reset before the market dynamics potentially shift in the coming week.
Despite various fluctuations, Bitcoin’s price has remained essentially unchanged over the past few weeks. The asset remains firmly stuck in the middle of its established range, lacking the necessary momentum to either break out toward new highs or break down into a deeper correction.
Daan Crypto Trades warned that next week will likely be characterized by more choppy price action, as market activity often thins out significantly around the Christmas holidays.
]]>The U.S. Treasury and IRS have released an interim guidance, which highlights plans to ease the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) rule that mandated tax on unrealized Bitcoin gains. With this new guidance on the Treasury CAMT rule, companies like Strategy no longer expect to be subject to the rule due to its unrealized gains
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]]>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves proposed rule changes to adopt generic listing standards for crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) filed under the commodity rule by securities exchanges such as Nasdaq. This makes XRP, Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Hedera (HBAR) among 12-15 crypto assets eligible for faster ETF launch. US SEC Passes Generic Listing
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]]>CBOE has filed for a rule change with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seeking to allow the generic listing and trading of crypto ETFs. If approved, issuers will sidestep the lengthy application process for a crypto ETF, typically lasting for over 180 days. CBOE Pushes For Uniform Framework For Crypto ETFs CBOE has
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]]>Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, has expressed confidence that a new directive from the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) could have a major impact on Bitcoin. The move, which aims to incorporate cryptocurrency holdings like Bitcoin into the mortgage qualification process, may help crypto holders access home loans without needing to convert their
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]]>The post Just In: US Labor Department Withdraws Rule Against Bitcoin’s Inclusion In Retirement Plans appeared first on CoinGape.
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