Bitcoin remains in the $40,000 range

Bitcoin remains down more than 12% month-to-date and off more than 13% year-to-date

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are giving back gains Friday morning.

It was a good week for bitcoin with gains in three of the past four days, adding more than 4% in the past two days.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Bitcoin remains down more than 12% month-to-date and off more than 13% year-to-date.

Labor Department officials had some criticism for Fidelity Investments’ plan to allow investors to put bitcoin in their 401(k) accounts, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A senior administrator said the plan risks the retirement security of Americans.

BITCOIN COMING TO 401(K) PLANS THROUGH FIDELITY DIGITAL ASSET ACCOUNTS

"For the average American, the need for retirement savings in their old age is significant," Ali Khawar, acting assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, told the Journal. "We are not talking about millionaires and billionaires that have a ton of other assets to draw down."

Illustrative bitcoin tokens at a Bitcoin Change bureau in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

His group works inside the Labor Department to regulate company-sponsored retirement plans. 

CLICK HERE FOR FOX BUSINESS' REAL-TIME CRYPTOCURRENCY PRICING DATA 

In an April 26 disclosure, Fidelity said that starting later this year, workers could allocate as much as 20% of their nest eggs to bitcoin. That threshold could be reduced by employers. 

Fidelity responded by saying that its bitcoin offering "represents the firm’s continued commitment to evolving and broadening its digital assets offerings amidst steadily growing demand for digital assets across investor segments, and we believe that this technology and digital assets will represent a large part of the financial industry’s future."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Fidelity said this week that the offering would be limited to bitcoin initially, but other digital assets will be made available in the future.