Two of the greatest exchanges of centralized cryptocurrency, Coinbase and OKX, introduce services for self-managed retirement funds (SMSF) in Australia, giving individuals new ways to add cryptocurrency to the country’s retirement savings system.
While the Australians have been able to hold digital assets in SMSFS for several years, Coinbase and OKX now pack this access to dedicated products, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Instead of letting investors set up their own structures and managing custody independently, exchanges offer services that combine references to accountants and law firms with integrated guard and registers to meet audit requirements.
According to the Australian, Australian’s retirement pool and held around 1.7 billion dollars (US $ 1.1 billion) in March 2025, according to Australian Tax Office. This total has been more than seven years since 2021, making SMSFS the first part of the system to show significant exposure to cryptography.
Coinbase told Bloomberg that more than 500 investors had joined the waiting list for its SMSF service, most of them planning to allocate $ 100,000 each in digital active ingredients. OKX launched a similar offer in June and said the request had exceeded expectations.
The change reduces obstacles to traditional investors and marks one of the first efforts organized by major exchanges to exploit a retirement system that ranks among the most important in the world on a per capita basis.
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Crypto rules for retirement plans change in the United States
Australia’s experience with SMSF is involved while other major economies weigh on how retirement money should interact with digital assets, especially the United States.
Fidelity Investments was the first main supplier to test the retired crypto, launching a Bitcoin 401 (K) option in April 2022. The product initially enabled participants to allocate up to 20% of their Bitcoin (BTC) savings if employers have opted for the exercise, but he quickly drawn from the Labor Ministry, who warned the fiduciaries extremes ”with crypto exhibitions.
This position took care until May 2025, when the Labor Department officially canceled its warning advice and restored the discretion of planning sponsors.
The most notable advancement for crypto in American retirement policy came on August 7, when US President Donald Trump signed a decree entitled “Democratizing access to alternative assets for investors 401 (K)”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly-Sjgrakrs
The ordinance ordered the Ministry of Labor to review the pension-plan rules, paving the way for alternative assets such as cryptocurrencies to include in 401 (K) and other defined control accounts.
Unsurprisingly, he was met both praise and criticism. The secretary of work Lori Chavez-Deremer welcomed the order, saying: “The federal government should not make retired investment decisions for workers, including decisions concerning alternative assets … This decree further supports our efforts to improve flexibility and eliminate unfair approaches.”
But criticisms have warned that this could endanger savers. Chris nobleman, director of policies of the investigative stakeholders project, said in a statement that the decision could “mainly benefit the investment capital companies to the detriment of retirement security for millions of Americans”.
There are also growing concerns about conflicts of potential interests. In addition to the success of the legislation and convivial decrees, Trump and his family are strongly invested in space.
On Monday, the Token World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a project supported by the Trump family, made its commercial debut after having sold about a quarter of its supply in a private offer that collected more than $ 500 million.
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