Mallika Mitra at Barron's wrote about crypto going mainstream, with investors of all ages diving in after Charles Schwab announced it would let clients trade crypto directly on its platform. The market had reached $2.6 trillion, and Bitcoin's run from about $8,000 in early 2020 to a $126,000 peak in October 2025 had finally reached the retirees who had spent a decade dismissing it.
She opened with a call I got. Shortly after the Schwab announcement, a 68-year-old client who had always dismissed Bitcoin asked me whether he was missing something. Institutional credibility moved the needle in a way that price performance never did. Ten years of charts did not persuade him. A familiar custodian putting crypto next to his bond ladder did.
My answer to him, and to Barron's, is that a 70-year-old with a fixed-income need and low risk tolerance does not automatically benefit from an asset class just because Charles Schwab decided to offer it. The fact that a product is now easy to buy tells you about the brokerage's business strategy, not about your retirement plan.
The framework is the same as for any speculative holding. What job does it do in the plan? What happens to the plan if it goes to zero? If the answer is nothing, a small position in a taxable account is fine for a client who wants it. If a loss would change the income picture, the position is too big at any size. Most of my retired clients, once they run that test, decide they were not missing anything.
Read the full article at Barron's →
