Most Wealthy Investors Own Crypto. Fewer Than 5% Have Made It Core

"Once an investor gets past the risk perception stage, what's left is security, fees, and platform user-friendliness and capabilities," Neil Steinhardt, COO of Nexo US, said in the release.

That is the headline finding of "The Future of Digital Wealth 2026," published by the crypto wealth platform on September 23. Steinhardt called those "the same things we've spent years building Nexo to solve," adding: "That's the gap between owning crypto and actually building wealth with it, and it's exactly where our platform is designed to meet investors." The company discloses its commercial interest in crypto adoption alongside the report.

The market backdrop: bitcoin near $82,000 on October 8, down 7.5% this year and about 35% under its October 2025 record above $126,000.

The survey ran in February and March through research platform Attest. The bar to get in: at least $100,000 in liquid assets in the U.S. and U.K., or $40,000 in Argentina, roughly the top 25% to 30% of each market by investable wealth.

Owning it is not the same as using it

The report scores each investor on a new 1-to-10 Crypto Integration Index, built from five equal parts: allocation size, holding horizon, retirement use, substitution for a traditional asset and risk perception.