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For Matthew Roed, Social Security is looking a lot less promising than the money he’s stashed away in his BitcoinIRA.

Roed is a registered nurse living in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and he says he’s spent 16,000 hours researching all things bitcoin. His conclusion? Investing in the cryptocurrency is the key to retiring well, and the best way to do it is through a tax-free, self-directed Individual Retirement Account, or IRA.

“Since bitcoin is legally classified as property by the U.S. government and my crypto is inside of an IRA, I knew that I would greatly reduce my taxable expenses due to exponential growth,” said Roed.

At today’s prices, the gamble has so far paid off.

The MBA grad, father, and husband initially invested $30,000 into his BitcoinIRA. Right now, he says that his retirement portfolio is up to $250,000,

While it’s down from its peak of $500,000, Roed still feels vindicated in his conviction that bitcoin is the future.

“No one wanted to listen to me at that time, including my own family,” he said. “I became reclusive and used my frustration to push more and more into getting involved in that market.”

RN Matthew Roed at Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute in Golden Valley, Minnesota.
Matthew Roed

BitcoinIRA

BitcoinIRA launched in May of 2016, offering investors the tax-advantage of an IRA, plus the return of a high-risk, high-reward alternative asset class. It’s similar in nature to other IRAs, except that instead of being funded by gold, cash, and bonds, it’s backed by bitcoin.

The company has more than 100,000 individual account holders, including clients as young as 18. But chief operating officer Chris Kline tells CNBC that 75% of account holders are 45 and over. “It’s not a young kids’ game anymore,” he said.

BitcoinIRA isn’t just dealing in bitcoin either. It now includes a long list of cryptocurrencies, including ethereum and litecoin.

Duke University’s Campbell Harvey thinks diversification is the right call.

“To have a portfolio that has exposure…to a single crypto like bitcoin, that doesn’t make any sense, because while bitcoin is the most important one right now, its share of the overall capitalization of cryptos has decreased through time. There are so many other tokens out there,” Harvey said.

When CNBC first profiled BitcoinIRA in 2017, it served $6 million in transactions for 700 account holders. This month, it passed $1.5 billion in all-time transactions.

There were also far fewer players in the crypto retirement space. The market is now flooded with options.

A recent survey of financial advisors shows a significant shift to cryptocurrencies. 14% of the more than 500 financial advisors included in the report said they now use or recommend cryptocurrency to clients, versus fewer than 1% in 2019 and 2020.

IRA custodian Kingdom Trust offers users the option to diversify in 20 different cryptocurrencies. CEO Ryan Radloff tells CNBC that $2 billion of the $17 billion that it holds for clients is now in cryptocurrency. That’s up from $350 million a year ago.

“The amount of people interested in including bitcoin in their retirement savings…is increasing exponentially,” said Radloff. “People don’t want zombie retirement accounts that only allow you to invest in three target-date funds. They want to have more choice in what they do with their hard-earned money, and they want access to hard-assets that will increase in value over a long time horizon.”

IRA vs. Roth IRA vs. 401(k)

Crypto-backed retirement portfolios may rapidly be gaining in popularity, but there are still some major limitations.

For one, while there are multiple ways to invest your savings for retirement – be it an employer-sponsored 401(k) or a Roth IRA – very few of these vehicles actually allow for an alternative asset like gold or crypto.

That’s why the primary retirement vehicle for holding crypto is self-directed IRAs, explains Shehan Chandrasekera, a CPA and head of tax strategy at crypto tax software company CoinTracker.io.

As the name suggests, it’s an account you open with a custodian, you make all investment decisions, and your income is tax sheltered until your retirement. Kingdom Trust and BitcoinIRA both follow this model.

“So far as retirement accounts go, right now, with bitcoin, it’s IRAs, IRAs, IRAs,” explained Onramp Invest chief executive Tyrone Ross. Onramp sells software that helps financial advisers keep track of client cryptocurrency investments.

“Because it’s considered property by the IRS…that is why you’re seeing the self-directed IRA space explode,” continued Ross. “There’s a lot of regulation to get through before you get it into the 401(k) space.”

There are exceptions. A small 401(k) provider called ForUsAll announced last month that it is now allowing participants to allocate up to 5% of their retirement funds into 50 different crypto assets including bitcoin, which will be custodied and managed by Coinbase.

Companies like BitWage and Digital Asset Investment Management are also trying to fold crypto into traditional retirement plans offered by employers.

But Chandrasekera says that “generally speaking, 99% of 401(k) plans don’t offer bitcoin services,” so there is still a ways to go until bitcoin hits mainstream retirement platforms.

Fidelity, for example, tells clients that retail brokerage customers cannot buy or sell any cryptocurrencies at Fidelity, though they can, theoretically, get exposure to the bitcoin trade through crypto-associated companies trading on the public markets. Same goes for Charles Schwab.

Volatility risk versus tax savings

Roed spoke to CNBC after wrapping a 14-hour night shift. Those post-work hours are when the rehabilitation staff nurse invests the most time into researching ways to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Part of why he settled on BitcoinIRA has to do with the company’s staking program. Roed lends third parties his bitcoin and in return, he earns an annual percentage rate, or APR, for the risk. “It’s something like 2% per year,” he said.

This helps to offset the $240 annual account fee, plus the average transaction fees of 1% to sell and 5.5% to buy.

Kline says that clients can earn up to 6% annual percentage yield on cash and cryptocurrency, which helps balance out the fees.

Another major consideration? The volatility of bitcoin.

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency is trading at about half of what it was worth in April.

“We don’t see that volatility in, for example, the stock market,” explained Harvey.

“It’s naive to think that bitcoin is just going to keep on going up. There is going to be some limit, and people need to deeply consider that,” he said.

Beyond the volatility risks, the Securities and Exchange Commission has also warned of the risk of fraud when participating in self-directed IRAs which deal in cryptos.

But Kline remains optimistic. He ran CNBC through a case study of one client who purchased about $1.5 million worth of bitcoin in April of 2020, when the token was trading at around $7,335. At today’s value, his investment is worth well over $6 million.

BitcoinIRA case study

Date Quantity Unit price Total purchased Current unit value Total current value
Apr. 9, 2020 193.295 BTC $7,335 $1,417,859 32,416 6,265,850

But ultimately, Kline says it’s the tax break that makes BitcoinIRA a slam dunk for those looking to deal in cryptos.

If a taxpayer at an average income level were to sell his bitcoin today, he would pay no tax for the crypto held in his BitcoinIRA. If it were in a Coinbase account, this same person would face a 22% short-term capital gains tax or 15% for a long-term holding.

“Pretty clear quantitative reasoning to put an asset like bitcoin in an IRA setting,” said Kline.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to show that registered nurse Matthew Roed spent 16,000 hours researching cryptocurrencies, not 160,000 hours. Also, it clarifies that 75% of BitcoinIRA account holders are age 45 and over.

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Xiaomi delivers record cars in March as winners emerge in China’s EV race

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Xiaomi delivers record cars in March as winners emerge in China's EV race

A Xiaomi store in Shanghai, China, on March 16, 2025.

Qilai Shen/Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese electric carmakers Xiaomi, Xpeng and Leapmotor each delivered nearly 30,000 or more cars in March, roughly twice several of their fellow startup competitors.

It’s a sign of how some automakers are pulling ahead, while BYD remains the market leader by far.

Xiaomi delivered a record number of electric vehicles in March, exceeding 29,000 units, the company announced on social media. That topped its prior run of delivering more than 20,000 vehicles in each of the past five months.

The SU7, Xiaomi’s flagship model, was involved in a crash on a highway on Tuesday that left three dead. The automaker on Tuesday afternoon released a statement on Chinese social media that the vehicle was in navigation on autopilot mode before the accident.

Based on preliminary information, the road was obstructed because of construction. The driver took control of the car but collided with construction infrastructure. Xiaomi added in the release that investigations were underway.

That came two weeks after the automaker announced on March 18 its goal to deliver 350,000 vehicles this year. There are also talks of the automaker expanding its second EV factory in Beijing to meet demand, Bloomberg reported on March 18. Xiaomi did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Its competitor Xpeng in March delivered 33,205 vehicles, the fifth consecutive month it has delivered over 30,000 units per month and reflecting a 268% surge in deliveries from the same month last year. March is also the fifth consecutive month the company has delivered over 15,000 units of the Mona M03.

Leapmotor delivered 37,095 vehicles, reflecting a 154% year-over-year growth. The Stellantis-owned automaker last month launched U.K. sales of two electric vehicle models, the T03 and the C10.

Li Auto delivered 36,674 vehicles in March, a 26.5% year-over-year increase, but fewer than every month in the second half of 2024. The company’s cars had gained early traction with Chinese consumers since most come with a fuel tank for charging the vehicle’s battery, reducing anxiety about driving range.

Tesla takes two of three top spots in China's most popular EV list

BYD sold 371,419 passenger vehicles in March, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 57.9%. Its overseas sales volume also hit a record high of 72,723 units in March.

In the same month, the automaker unveiled its “Super e-Platform” technology, which boasts 400 kilometers (roughly 249 miles) of range with five minutes of charging. The company in February also announced that it was integrating DeepSeek artificial intelligence to develop “DiPilot,” its advanced driver-assistance system.

Across the board, major companies across China’s electric car industry reported deliveries rose last month, indicating a pick-up in demand from the seasonally soft first two months of the year.

U.S. automaker Tesla sold 78,828 electric vehicles in China in March, marking a 11.5% year-over-year decline in growth.

Other Chinese carmakers saw growth in deliveries but some still struggled to break through the 20,000-unit mark.  

Nio delivered 15,039 vehicles, a 26.7% year-over-year growth, but well below the number of cars delivered in the months of May to December last year. Nio-owned Onvo, which markets its electric vehicles as family-oriented, in March recorded 15,039 units in deliveries.

Geely-owned Zeekr delivered 15,422 vehicles in March, increasing by 18.5% year over year. The company last month announced its rollout of free advanced driver-assistance technology to local customers in a bid to compete in the market.

Aito, as of April 2, has not published its delivery numbers for March. The automaker, which uses Huawei tech in its vehicles, on social media had reported monthly deliveries of 34,987 and 21,517 in January and February, respectively.

Quarterly performance

On a first-quarter basis, BYD remained in the lead with 986,098 vehicles sold. The automaker, which overtook Tesla in annual sales last year, surpassed the U.S. EV giant in battery electric vehicles sales this quarter.

Tesla sold 172,754 vehicles in China in the first quarter this year, according to monthly delivery numbers published by the China Passenger Car Association.

Xpeng also reported strong growth, with a total of 94,008 vehicles delivered in the quarter ending in March, reflecting a 331% year-over-year growth.

Leapmotor saw quarterly deliveries more than double to 87,552 units from 33,410 units the same period in 2024, according to publicly available numbers the company published.

However, Li Auto and Nio reported weaker growth than their competitors in the first quarter of the year.

Nio saw 42,094 vehicles delivered in the three months ended March 2025, an increase of 40.1% year over year. Li Auto saw a slower year-over-year growth of 15.5%, with a total of 92,864 vehicles delivered.

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De minimis trade loophole that boosted Chinese online retailers to end May 2

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De minimis trade loophole that boosted Chinese online retailers to end May 2

A driver for an independent contractor to FedEx delivers packages on Cyber Monday in New York, US, on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023.

Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order shutting the de minimis trade loophole, effective May 2.

Trump in February abruptly ended the de minimis trade exemption, which allows shipments worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. The order overwhelmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees and caused the U.S. Postal Service to temporarily halt packages from China and Hong Kong. Within days of its announcement, Trump reversed course and delayed the cancellation of the provision.

Wednesday’s announcement, which came alongside a set of sweeping new tariffs, gives customs officials, retailers and logistics companies more time to prepare. Goods that qualify under the de minimis exemption will be subject to a duty of either 30% of their value, or $25 per item. That rate will increase to $50 per item on June 1, the White House said.

Use of the de minimis provision has exploded in recent years as shoppers flock to Chinese e-commerce companies Temu and Shein, which offer ultra-low cost apparel, electronics and other items. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said it processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024, up from over 1 billion shipments in 2023.

Critics of the provision say it provides an unfair advantage to Chinese e-commerce companies and creates an influx of packages that are “subject to minimal documentation and inspection,” raising concerns around counterfeit and unsafe goods.

The Trump administration has sought to close the loophole over concerns that it facilitates shipments of fentanyl and other illicit substances on the claims that the packages are less likely to be inspected by customs agents.

Temu and Shein have taken steps to grow their operations in the U.S. as the de minimis loophole has come under greater scrutiny. After onboarding sellers with inventory in U.S. warehouses, Temu recently began steering shoppers to those items on its website, allowing it to speed up deliveries. Shein opened distribution centers in states including Illinois and California in 2022, and a supply chain hub in Seattle last year.

WATCH: President Trump signs executive orders for reciprocal tariffs

Pres. Trump signs executive orders for reciprocal tariffs

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Apple leads a drop in tech stocks after Trump tariff announcement

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 Apple leads a drop in tech stocks after Trump tariff announcement

Apple CEO Tim Cook, center, watches during the inauguration ceremonies for President Donald Trump, right, and Vice President JD Vance, left, in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025.

Shawn Thew | Afp | Getty Images

Apple slid more than 6% in late trading Wednesday and led a broader decline in tech stocks after President Donald Trump announced new tariffs of between 10% and 49% on imported goods.

The majority of Apple’s revenue comes from devices manufactured primarily in China and a handful of other Asian countries. Nvidia, which manufactures new chips in Taiwan and assembles its artificial intelligence systems in Mexico and elsewhere, fell about 4%, while electric vehicle company Tesla dropped 4.5%.

Across the rest of the megacap universe, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta all dropped between 2.5% and 5%, and Microsoft was down by almost 2%.

If Apple’s postmarket loss is matched in regular trading Thursday, it would be the steepest decline for the stock since September 2020.

Trump on Wednesday afternoon said the new taxes on imported goods would be a “declaration of economic independence” for the country. He announced a 10% blanket tariff on all imports, and higher duties for specific countries, including 34% for China, 20% for European nations, and 24% for Japanese imports, based on what tariffs they charge on U.S. exports, Trump said.

“We will supercharge our domestic industrial base, we will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers,” Trump said during his speech. “Ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.”

Stocks broadly got hit by Trump’s announcements. An exchange-traded fund tracking the S&P 500 slid 2.8%, while an ETF following the Nasdaq 100 lost more than 3%.

During his speech, Trump praised Apple, Meta, and Nvidia for spending money and investing in the United States.

“Apple is going to spend $500 billion, they never spent money like that here,” Trump said. “They’re going to build their plants here.”

The Nasdaq just wrapped up its worst quarter since 2022, dropping 10% in the first three months of the year, though the tech-heavy index rose in each of the first two days of the second quarter.

WATCH: President Trump signs executive orders for reciprocal tariffs

Pres. Trump signs executive orders for reciprocal tariffs

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