US Senators Ask $4.5 Trillion Investment Firm Fidelity to Reconsider Exposure to Bitcoin in Wake of FTX Implosion

cryptonews.com:

Three US senators asked the major financial services firm Fidelity Investments to reconsider exposing workplace retirement plans to bitcoin (BTC).

Democratic senators Richard Durbin, Elizabeth Warren, and Tina Smith penned a letter to "strongly urge" the company's CEO Abigail Johnson to reconsider a decision to allow 401(k) plan sponsors to expose participants to bitcoin.

401(k) plans are employer-sponsored defined-contribution pension accounts, and Fidelity Investments is the United States’ biggest provider of these pension plans.

The trio argued that, since their previous letter, sent in July this year,

"The digital asset industry has only grown more volatile, tumultuous, and chaotic—all features of an asset class no plan sponsor or person saving for retirement should want to go anywhere near."

The senators used the fall of the crypto exchange FTX as an event that they said cannot be ignored and that made it "abundantly clear" that this industry has "serious problems."

The contagion is still spreading and is being felt across the industry, and while the full extent of the damage caused by FTX is unknown, it's clear that it is affecting BTC's price, said the senators. 

The letter stated that,

"The industry is full of charismatic wunderkinds, opportunistic fraudsters, and self-proclaimed investment advisors promoting financial products with little to no transparency. As a result, the ill-advised, deceptive, and potentially illegal actions of a few have a direct impact on the valuation of Bitcoin and other digital assets."

Fidelity is responsible for more than 32 million Americans' and 22,000 employers' workplace retirement accounts and employer-sponsored plans, they added.

Therefore, concluded the letter's authors, 

"By many