USD
Nexo Survey Finds Crypto Ownership High but Wealth Integration Shallow
Security, fees and platform complexity replace risk as key hurdles for affluent investors
TL;DR
- Nexo found that crypto ownership is already widespread among affluent investors, but relatively few use digital assets as a core part of long-term wealth planning.
- The company’s Crypto Integration Index measures portfolio allocation, holding periods, retirement use, asset substitution and perceived risk.
- More experienced crypto investors increasingly cite operational issues such as security, fees and platform complexity rather than basic risk concerns.
Trade smarter on Jupiter, Solana’s leading DEX built for fast execution and deep liquidity.
Swap tokens at competitive rates, route across multiple liquidity sources automatically, and access perpetuals, DCA, and advanced trading tools — all in one place!
Nexo said on September 23, 2026, that affluent investors widely own cryptocurrency but have yet to make it a central part of long-term wealth planning, with its new Crypto Integration Index averaging 4.83 out of 10 across surveyed investors in the United States, United Kingdom and Argentina.
Nexo’s “The Future of Digital Wealth 2026” research found 67% of affluent investors own cryptocurrency. However, only 4.7% scored at least 7 on its Crypto Integration Index, or CII, the level Nexo classifies as “Structurally Integrated.” More than 40% already own crypto without yet using it as part of broader wealth-building strategies, while just under 20% expect cryptocurrency to become their top personal wealth driver over the next decade.
Nexo created the CII to measure more than simple ownership. The index evaluates five equally weighted factors: the percentage of a portfolio allocated to crypto, how long positions are held, whether digital assets are included in retirement planning, whether crypto has replaced a traditional asset and how investors view its risk compared with stocks or real estate. Structurally Integrated investors use crypto in long-term financial planning and have replaced at least one traditional asset with digital assets.
Risk perception plays a smaller role as investors gain experience
Nexo found that perceived investment risk accounted for only 13.6% of variation in CII scores. Asset substitution and retirement integration together accounted for more than half of the variation, making those behaviors stronger separators between simple crypto ownership and deeper wealth integration.
“Risk perception used to be the story in every crypto adoption survey. It isn’t anymore,” Iliya Kalchev, analyst at Nexo, said.
“In our data, risk perception barely separates investors who’ve built real wealth with crypto from those who haven’t — what actually divides them is whether they’ve substituted crypto for a traditional asset and folded it into retirement planning. For affluent investors it’s the planning and the smoothness of operating with that crypto that remains to be resolved,” Kalchev said.
The barriers also change as investors move further into crypto. Less-integrated investors continue to cite unfamiliarity and volatility. Investors already classified as Structurally Integrated increasingly identify practical problems related to managing digital assets.
“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,” Neil Steinhardt, COO, Nexo US, said. “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.”
Nexo pointed to functions such as earning yield on idle balances, accessing liquidity without selling assets and incorporating crypto into retirement and tax planning as increasingly relevant to affluent users. Nexo offers crypto-backed loans, yield products and a crypto debit card, giving the company a commercial interest in broader digital-asset adoption. Its claim that its platform addresses the identified frictions represents Nexo’s own positioning.
U.S. investors show deeper integration despite lower ownership
Country-level results showed that higher crypto ownership did not always correspond with deeper integration.
Argentina’s higher ownership was linked to crypto being used more as an alternative to cash after years of currency depreciation and capital controls. U.S. investors showed the deepest average integration, with crypto competing more directly with equity allocations. The United Kingdom showed the widest separation between ownership and integration, with many affluent investors holding digital assets through comparatively fragmented or shallow positions.
Age also affected how investors used crypto. Among people aged 35 to 44, integration reached its highest level and 28% treated crypto as a core retirement asset. Investors aged 18 to 25 showed the highest ownership and conviction, with more than 90% holding cryptocurrency, yet only 2% reported a crypto investment horizon of 10 years or longer.
Survey covers 1,000 affluent investors across three markets
Nexo conducted the research through Attest during February and March 2026, surveying 1,000 affluent investors across the three markets. U.S. and UK participants were required to hold at least $100,000 in liquid assets, while the threshold for Argentina was $40,000. The thresholds were calibrated to represent roughly the top 25% to 30% of each market by investable wealth.
The research divides investors into five archetypes ranging from “Pre-entry,” for people without crypto exposure, to “Structurally Integrated,” for investors who meet the highest integration threshold. The profiles are composite survey categories rather than individual case studies.
Nexo said the progression shows that investors face different hurdles depending on their stage of adoption. Education, unfamiliarity and volatility remain more prominent earlier in the process, while investors with greater exposure increasingly focus on security, transaction costs, platform usability, tax treatment, regulation and converting between fiat and crypto.
The research captures investor attitudes during its survey period and does not establish whether the stated operational barriers arise from cryptocurrency itself or from the custody arrangements and platforms respondents used. The sample also means estimates for smaller demographic or national subgroups carry more uncertainty than findings covering the full respondent base.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
