Durbin bill seeks to ban crypto from Social Security trust funds

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A Democratic senator has introduced a bill to bar US Social Security trust funds from ever being invested in cryptocurrency, formalising a restriction that already exists in practice.

According to Newsweek, Senator Dick Durbin’s “No Crypto in Social Security Act” would amend the Social Security Act to explicitly prohibit future investment in “digital assets”, keeping the roughly $2.56 trillion trust funds confined to US Treasury securities. Durbin framed the move as insulation against volatility after crypto’s market value fell sharply from late 2025 into early 2026, and as a guardrail against political pressure to broaden crypto’s role in retirement savings.

The proposal lands in a policy environment where crypto is being normalised through adjacent channels rather than through Social Security itself. Newsweek notes that the Department of Labor rescinded earlier cautionary guidance on including crypto in 401(k) plans, and that President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing regulators to make it easier for employer-sponsored retirement plans to invest in digital assets. That shift does not change Social Security’s statutory investment limits, but it changes the surrounding expectations: once private retirement products are nudged toward riskier assets, the temptation grows to re-label the government’s largest retirement pool as “underinvested” or “missing out”.

Durbin’s bill is also a pre-emptive response to the way political conflicts increasingly play out through financial plumbing. Social Security’s projected depletion of its trust funds within the next decade has already turned actuarial shortfalls into a permanent legislative bargaining chip. Locking in an investment prohibition now narrows the menu of future fixes and makes certain proposals—whether framed as “modernisation” or “innovation”—illegal by default.

The senator’s argument leans heavily on conflict-of-interest optics. He pointed to the Trump family’s involvement in crypto ventures and cited a Reuters estimate that the Trump Organization earned $802 million from crypto in the first half of 2025. Even without a White House proposal targeting Social Security, the combination of presidential cheerleading for crypto and private financial exposure makes the question of where public money can be steered less theoretical.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. For now, Social Security remains legally bound to Treasuries, and the new legislation would mainly ensure it stays that way even if future administrations decide the definition of “safe” should include assets whose price can halve in five months.

Durbin’s proposal does not change how benefits are paid this year. It changes what Congress would be allowed to try when the trust fund clock runs down.