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Nexo report finds 67% of affluent investors own crypto, but only 4.7% have truly integrated it
A new study of 1,000 wealthy investors across three countries reveals a massive gap between owning crypto and actually building a financial strategy around it.
Two-thirds of affluent investors now hold crypto. Sounds like a victory lap for the industry, until you look at how they’re actually using it.
Nexo’s “The Future of Digital Wealth 2026” report, published on September 23, surveyed 1,000 wealthy investors across the US, UK, and Argentina between February and March of this year. The headline number is striking: 67% of respondents own crypto assets. But the report’s own Crypto Integration Index, which measures how deeply crypto is woven into someone’s actual financial life, tells a very different story. The average score across all respondents was just 4.83 out of 10, and only 4.7% of participants scored 7 or higher, the threshold Nexo classifies as “structurally integrated.”
The integration gap is wider than the ownership numbers suggest
Nexo built its Crypto Integration Index to measure crypto engagement across multiple dimensions, including allocation size, holding duration, and retirement planning. The survey targeted individuals in the top 25-30% by liquid assets in each country, conducted through the research platform Attest.
A full 42.6% of those surveyed hold crypto yet have not committed to integrating it into their broader financial planning. Under 20% of respondents anticipate that crypto will become their principal personal wealth driver within the next decade.
Argentina leads on ownership, the US leads on integration
Argentina posted the highest crypto ownership rate at 74%, but Argentine respondents also recorded the lowest average CII score at 4.62. The US had the lowest ownership rate of the three countries at 62.3%, yet it produced the highest integration score at 5.07. The UK landed in the middle on both measures: 65% ownership with a CII of 4.75.
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What’s actually holding people back
Risk perception accounts for only 13.6% of the variation in CII scores. The much bigger driver is practical: factors like asset substitution and retirement planning explain 54.2% of the variation in integration scores.
Among the 4.7% of respondents who are structurally integrated, the barriers they cite are operational. Security concerns top the list at 36%, followed by high fees at 34% and platform complexity at 28%.
What this means for the crypto market
The 42.6% of affluent investors who own crypto but haven’t integrated it represent a significant latent market. The fee complaint is worth noting: at 34%, it’s the second most cited barrier among deeply integrated users. The 54.2% figure—the share of integration variation explained by practical factors like retirement planning and asset substitution—suggests that regulatory clarity around crypto in retirement accounts, tax treatment of staking income, and standardized reporting could do more to deepen adoption than market performance alone.