Nexo report points to operational friction as the biggest investor barrier

Nexo, a premier digital assets wealth platform, today published “The Future of Digital Wealth 2026” report. The main finding shows operational friction, not conviction, is the biggest barrier keeping high-net-worth investors in the U.S., U.K., and Argentina from building real wealth with crypto.

The report also debuts the Crypto Integration Index (CII). It is a new 1-to-10 measure of how deeply crypto is embedded in an investor’s financial life, beyond ownership.

What the Crypto Integration Index measures

The CII combines five equally weighted dimensions into a single composite score: allocation size, holding horizon, retirement integration, substitution from traditional assets, and risk perception. Two-thirds of affluent investors surveyed (~67%) already hold crypto, yet the average CII score is just 4.83. That indicates most are exposed to crypto, but not yet building wealth with it.

The gap is not about conviction. Just under 20% of respondents already expect crypto to be their number-one personal wealth driver over the next decade, ahead of salary, equities, and real estate. Yet more than 40% are already invested, but not yet building wealth with it.

“Once an investor gets past the risk perception stage, what’s left is security, fees, and platform user-friendliness and capabilities, the same things we’ve spent years building Nexo to solve,” said Neil Steinhardt, COO, Nexo US. “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.”