The standard wealth administration and personal banking world, a lot of which is hard-bitten and twice shy on the subject of cryptocurrency investing, is underneath mounting stress once more to ship digital property to rich shoppers, significantly in crypto hotspots like Dubai, Switzerland and Singapore.
Swiss software program agency Avaloq, which serves many personal banks and wealth managers, examined excessive web value (HNW) investing attitudes within the UAE (based mostly on surveys of three,851 buyers and 456 wealth professionals performed in February/March 2025), and located that whereas demand for digital property in that area is unusually excessive (39% of rich shoppers maintain crypto), solely 20% of these crypto buyers used a standard wealth supervisor.
The UAE, identified for its oil-rich, ultra-high net-worth household workplaces and a low tax middle for expat staff, can also be rapidly changing into one of many world’s hottest crypto hubs, with Dubai providing a transparent regulatory framework within the type of the Digital Belongings Regulatory Authority (VARA), which has been in place since 2022.
Nowadays, the children of ultra-high net-worth households are educating their elders about crypto – for instance, the Trumps. Towards this backdrop, Avaloq’s UAE snapshot discovered that 63% of buyers have switched managers or are contemplating doing so. The reason being partly as a result of their questions on crypto are going unanswered, in accordance with the survey.
“As crypto has developed as an asset class, there was a rising want amongst personal banking relationship managers to cater to shoppers who’re principally not being served,” mentioned Akash Anand, head of Center East and Africa at Avaloq, in an interview with CoinDesk.
“Therefore there was a rush amongst conventional wealth managers to get outfitted to supply crypto.”
The roadblocks
So why weren’t these conventional monetary establishments serving what their shoppers need? The easy reply is that crypto, by its nature, is unstable, and far of the expertise is complicated to navigate.
Along with crypto’s nerve-jangling volatility, there’s additionally the uncertainty related to managing wallets, personal keys, and unfamiliar custody preparations, which causes complications for managers and shoppers alike. For UAE buyers who don’t maintain cryptocurrency, the highest causes embrace market volatility (38%), a lack of awareness (36%), and mistrust in exchanges (32%), in accordance with Avaloq.
The software program agency is capitalizing on the chance created by a mismatch between the merchandise provided by conventional establishments and the demand from their shoppers.
For instance, Avaloq has efficiently built-in crypto custody hand-holding platforms inside monetary establishments over the previous a number of years, using crypto safe-keeping expertise from Fireblocks and collaborating with corporations similar to BBVA and Zurich Cantonal Financial institution.
Altering panorama
With investor urge for food shifting so as to add extra publicity to digital property, the monetary establishments are lastly taking discover, as alternatives are plentiful within the sector.
There may be “a wholesome pipeline” of personal banks and monetary corporations seeking to both customise their core system with Avaloq’s crypto custody tech or use the agency’s pre-figured platform, Anand mentioned.
Nonetheless, quite a few alternatives within the wealth sector stay untapped. “Corporations wish to create a one-stop store built-in with their present e-banking methods,” Anand mentioned.
And why would not buyers demand extra from their advisors? The crypto wealth is increasing, because of market rallying after the brutal crypto winter and bitcoin hitting its new all-time excessive this 12 months. Extra millionaires are being created by means of the brand new age of digital asset investing.
In truth, the worldwide inhabitants of crypto millionaires has reached 241,700, a 40% improve from the earlier 12 months, in accordance with the Crypto Wealth Report 2025 by Henley & Companions. The report additionally ranked Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.S., Switzerland, and the UAE as the highest 5 locations for digital asset buyers.
With the crypto trade maturing after 2021’s spectacular bull run and the following crash, the digital property sector is now a severe contender for inclusion by buyers, significantly because the sector turns into more and more extra dominated by institutional cash.
“There have been some fairly spectacular crashes involving sure crypto exchanges, and that has created loads of belief points. Our analysis reveals that there’s a chance for banks and wealth managers to step in and supply that belief within the type of totally built-in, safe and compliant custody.”
