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In October 2025, AARP conducted research to understand Americans’ knowledge of private market investments and cryptocurrency, and their interest in investing in these alternative assets in their workplace retirement savings accounts. Private market investments are investments that happen outside public stock exchanges and include owning part of a private company (private equity), investing in private real estate deals, and making loans to businesses (private credit). Cryptocurrency is a digital form of money that exists only online, uses blockchain technology to keep transactions secure, and is not issued or backed by a bank or the U.S. government.
This research was prompted by growing efforts, especially from private equity firms and cryptocurrency providers, to have these alternative assets included in workplace retirement savings accounts such as 401(k)s. Because these accounts are central to the financial security of millions of Americans, we wanted to know whether people understand these investments and how interested people are in investing in them through their retirement accounts when given clear information about fees, liquidity, risk, returns and transparency.
Three key findings emerged from this research:
1. Access to private market investments and cryptocurrency is not seen as important.
Most adults do not think it’s important to have the ability to invest in private market investments (61%) or cryptocurrency (73%) within their workplace retirement savings account.
2. Learning more about these assets dampens enthusiasm.
Interest in investing in private market investments declines sharply when people learn about fees, liquidity, transparency and risk — three in five are not at all interested, and another quarter only slightly interested. Cryptocurrency starts with low interest across all age groups (62% not interested), and additional information further reduces interest by roughly 10 percentage points.
3. Strong resistance to automatic enrollment exists.
Most Americans are uncomfortable with being automatically enrolled in funds in their workplace retirement savings accounts that include private market investments (68%) or cryptocurrency (75%). This resistance is particularly strong among older adults.
Methodology
Interviews were conducted between October 23 and 27, 2025, among 1,036 U.S. adults age 18-plus in the AmeriSpeak Omnibus. Funded and operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population age 18 or older. Interviews were conducted online and via phone. All data are weighted by age, sex, education, race/ethnicity and region.
For more information, contact Bryan Miller at bmmiller@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact External Relations at media@aarp.org.
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