Nexo, a digital belongings wealth platform, has printed “The Way forward for Digital Wealth 2026,” a report surveying prosperous buyers throughout the US, UK, and Argentina that finds operational friction, fairly than conviction or threat notion, is the first barrier holding high-net-worth buyers from integrating crypto into their long-term monetary methods.
The report introduces the Crypto Integration Index, a brand new composite measure scoring from 1 to 10 how deeply crypto is embedded in an investor’s monetary life throughout 5 dimensions: allocation dimension, holding horizon, retirement integration, substitution from conventional belongings, and threat notion.
Regardless of two-thirds of prosperous buyers surveyed already holding crypto, the common CII rating sits at simply 4.83, indicating most are uncovered to crypto however not but constructing wealth with it. Solely 4.7% of buyers surveyed reached a rating of seven or above, the brink at which crypto is handled as a part of long-term monetary planning and has changed a conventional asset.
“As soon as an investor will get previous the danger notion stage, what’s left is safety, charges, and platform user-friendliness and capabilities – the identical issues we’ve spent years constructing Nexo to unravel,” stated Neil Steinhardt, COO, Nexo US. “That’s the hole between proudly owning crypto and truly constructing wealth with it, and it’s precisely the place our platform is designed to fulfill buyers.”
Conviction will not be the problem as practically 20% count on crypto to be their high wealth driver
The information challenges a long-held assumption about what’s holding prosperous buyers again. Slightly below 20% of respondents already count on crypto to be their number-one private wealth driver over the subsequent decade, forward of wage, equities, and actual property.
Greater than 40% are already invested however not but constructing wealth with it, pointing to a spot in integration fairly than perception.
“Danger notion was once the story in each crypto adoption survey. It isn’t anymore,” stated Iliya Kalchev, analyst at Nexo. “In our information, threat notion barely separates buyers who’ve constructed actual wealth with crypto from those that haven’t — what really divides them is whether or not they’ve substituted crypto for a conventional asset and folded it into retirement planning. For prosperous buyers it’s the planning and the smoothness of working with that crypto that is still to be resolved.”
The survey additionally surfaced notable variations throughout markets and age teams. Argentina leads on possession at 74% however trails on integration depth with a CII of 4.62. The US has the bottom possession fee at 62% however the deepest integration with a CII of 5.07. The UK sits between the 2 with 65% possession and a CII of 4.75.
Integration peaks amongst 35- to 44-year-olds, 28% of whom deal with crypto as a core retirement asset, whereas buyers aged 18 to 25 report the very best possession and conviction — over 90% maintain crypto, however solely 2% maintain a 10-year-plus horizon.
Amongst buyers categorized as structurally built-in with a CII of seven or above, friction shifts towards platform-level considerations: safety points high the listing at 36%, adopted by excessive charges at 34% and platform complexity at 28%.
The survey was carried out in February and March 2026 by way of the analysis platform Attest amongst 1,000 prosperous buyers throughout the three markets, screened for no less than $100,000 in liquid belongings within the US and UK, or $40,000 in Argentina.
Featured picture by way of Nexo.
