Nexo has published its “The Future of Digital Wealth 2026” report, which examines how affluent investors in the US, UK, and Argentina are incorporating crypto into their broader financial strategies.

According to Nexo, operational friction rather than investor conviction is the main barrier preventing high-net-worth investors from using crypto as part of long-term wealth building.

The report also introduces the Crypto Integration Index (CII), a 1-to-10 measure designed to assess how deeply crypto is integrated into an investor’s financial life beyond simple ownership.

The CII combines five equally weighted factors: portfolio allocation, holding horizon, retirement integration, substitution of traditional assets, and risk perception.

Two-thirds of the affluent investors surveyed, or about 67%, already hold crypto, according to the report.

However, the average CII score was 4.83, indicating that while many respondents have exposure to crypto, the asset class is not yet deeply integrated into their broader financial planning.

Nexo said the findings suggest the gap is driven less by investor conviction.

Just under 20% of respondents said they expect crypto to become their primary personal wealth driver over the next decade, ahead of salary, equities and real estate.

At the same time, more than 40% of respondents are already invested in crypto but have not yet incorporated it into their broader wealth-building strategies.

“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.”

According to Nexo’s CII framework, a score around the survey average of 4.83 represents a relatively small, short-term crypto position that sits outside retirement planning.

A score of 7 or higher, achieved by 4.7% of respondents, represents a longer-term position that has replaced a traditional asset and is incorporated into broader financial planning.

“Risk perception used to be the story in every crypto adoption survey. It isn’t anymore,” said Iliya Kalchev, analyst at Nexo.

“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.”

The report also identified differences in crypto ownership and integration across markets.

Argentina had the highest crypto ownership rate at 74% but a lower average CII score of 4.62.

The US had the lowest ownership rate at 62% but the highest integration score at 5.07, while the UK reported 65% ownership and a CII score of 4.75.

Integration was highest among investors aged 35 to 44, with 28% saying they treat crypto as a core retirement asset.

Investors aged 18 to 25 reported the highest ownership, with more than 90% holding crypto, but only 2% reporting a holding horizon of more than 10 years.

Among investors classified as “Structurally Integrated,” defined by Nexo as those with a CII score of 7 or higher, platform-related concerns became more prominent.

Security concerns were cited by 36% of respondents, followed by high fees at 34% and platform complexity at 28%.

The survey was conducted in February and March 2026 through research platform Attest among 1,000 affluent investors across the United States, United Kingdom, and Argentina.

Respondents were screened for at least $100,000 in liquid assets in the US and UK, or $40,000 in Argentina.

Nexo said these thresholds were calibrated to represent roughly the top 25% to 30% of each market by investable wealth.

The full report, including its methodology and regional breakdowns, is available on Nexo’s website.

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