When Your 401(k) Goes Private It Will Be Onchain

The case for bringing alternative assets into retirement accounts is no longer a fringe policy debate. U.S. defined-contribution plans remain heavily concentrated in public stocks and bonds even as institutional investors have spent years building positions in private credit, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure. Retirement capital has been excluded from that shift not because of participant preference or portfolio theory, but because of operational infrastructure. If regulation, plan design, and market technology evolve together, retirement accounts could become one of the largest new demand pools for private markets in the next decade.