A federal government plan to include alternative assets in 401(k)s has lifted the stock of private equity giants.

On Monday, the US Labor Department officially issued a proposal opening the door for alternative assets like private equity, credit, and cryptocurrency to be included in retirement accounts for more than 90 million Americans.

The move comes at a tenuous moment for alternative assets, which have faced a bear market in 2026.

Shares of Apollo Global Management (APO), Blackstone (BX), and KKR (KKR) all rose 1% to 3% on Monday. These same stocks have been walloped in recent weeks and are down between 24% and 30% this year. (Disclosure: Yahoo is a portfolio company of funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management.)

Crypto-related assets including Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether (ETH-USD) also rose slightly on the news and were up slightly on a 24-hour basis as of late Monday afternoon.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the proposal shows how retirement plans can consider a wider range of products that reflect today’s investment landscape.

She added in the release that it delivers on the president’s “promise for a new golden age by fostering a retirement system that allows more Americans to retire with dignity.”

The proposed regulation lays out how 401(k) plan managers should consider these assets in their investment lineups, which typically include stocks, bonds, and other index products. It’s a major shift in retirement investments, opening up the traditionally staid industry to more speculative and less liquid options.

The proposal follows an executive order President Trump signed last summer that paved the way for ordinary savers to have access to alternative assets, which historically have been reserved for institutions and wealthy investors.

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Chavez-DeRemer said the rule confirms that “there is no investment class or strategy that is per se unlawful for retirement plans” so long as plan managers engage in a “sound fiduciary process.”

“We applaud President Trump and the Department of Labor,” Will Dunham, CEO of private equity industry trade association, the American Investment Council, said in emailed statements.

“This proposed rule provides regulatory clarity that will give millions of workers with 401(k)s more choices and more control over their financial futures,” Dunham added.

Big money managers like Apollo, Blackstone, KKR and BlackRock (BLK) have eyed this opportunity for years as a way to tap a large and fresh new source of capital. Last week, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink argued that giving everyday investors more access to a range of assets, particularly those tied to artificial intelligence, is a core way to improve wealth inequality.

CFO Martin Small said “BlackRock supports this and other policy initiatives that thoughtfully expand access to investments historically out of reach,” in an statement about the Labor Department’s proposal.

Yet the proposal comes as private markets face a big test. Investors have raised their eyebrows over a range of issues, from disruption driven by AI to broader fears of deterioration in corporate credit. Critics also question whether the higher fees and semi-liquid nature of private asset products are suitable for everyday investors.

Many large private credit funds available to retail, including those managed by Apollo, Ares, BlackRock, and Morgan Stanley (MS), have seen record redemption requests and imposed limits on the amount of money investors can withdraw on a quarterly basis. The bulk of concerns are tied to how AI might disrupt their portfolios of loans to software companies.

A recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that some of these funds have more exposure to the software industry than their public filings suggest.

Earlier on Monday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that stress in the private credit market doesn’t appear to pose a systemic risk.

“We’re looking for connections to the banking system and things that might result in contagion,” Powell said during a talk at Harvard University. “We don’t see that right now.”

The Labor Department’s proposed rule now undergoes a 60-day comment period.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has conveyed his own concern around private lending. But “if there is something rotten, it is not going to be handed to the individual investors,” he said during a talk last month at the Economic Club of Dallas.

In a statement on Monday, Bessent said the rule is “an initial step in implementing the President’s Executive Order in a safe and smart manner, broadening access to additional retirement plan options for millions of Americans while being mindful of the importance of protecting retirement assets.”

David Hollerith covers the financial sector, ranging from the country’s biggest banks to regional lenders, private equity firms, and the cryptocurrency space.

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