67% Of Affluent Investors Own Crypto—But Just 4.7% Include It In Their Wealth Plans

Affluent investors already own crypto in large numbers, but very few appear willing to treat it like a conventional long-term wealth asset. More than 90% of affluent 18–25-year-olds surveyed by Nexo, a digital assets wealth platform, say they own some crypto, but a low 2% of them report owning it for 10-years or more. The Nexo survey, released on Sept. 23, suggests that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) ownership does not equal conviction about long-term wealth building via cryptocurrencies. 

Nexo argues that the biggest barriers to wider crypto adoption are increasingly practical ones, including security concerns, high fees and complicated platforms. Its survey report, the "Future of Digital Wealth 2026", released last week, suggests that broader perceptions of crypto as inherently risky are becoming less of a differentiating factor among more experienced investors. Still, crypto theft remains a major industry issue, with losses continuing to mount, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.

"In our data, risk perception barely separates investors who’ve built real wealth with crypto from those who haven’t," said Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo. "What actually divides them is whether they’ve substituted crypto for a traditional asset and folded it into retirement planning," Kalchev said in a press release about their new survey. For affluent investors, the main issue is future planning with crypto, and the smoothness of operating within the existing platforms.