Operational friction, not risk, is blocking wealthy investors from crypto wealth building, Nexo finds

Nexo, a digital assets wealth platform, has published “The Future of Digital Wealth 2026,” a report surveying affluent investors across the US, UK, and Argentina that finds operational friction, rather than conviction or risk perception, is the primary barrier keeping high-net-worth investors from integrating crypto into their long-term financial strategies.

The report introduces the Crypto Integration Index, a new composite measure scoring from 1 to 10 how deeply crypto is embedded in an investor’s financial life across five dimensions: allocation size, holding horizon, retirement integration, substitution from traditional assets, and risk perception.

Despite two-thirds of affluent investors surveyed already holding crypto, the average CII score sits at just 4.83, indicating most are exposed to crypto but not yet building wealth with it. Only 4.7% of investors surveyed reached a score of 7 or above, the threshold at which crypto is treated as part of long-term financial planning and has replaced a traditional asset.

“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.”