The Crypto Wealth Report 2026, issued by London-headquartered  Henley & Partners, said the global crypto market is worth $2.6 trillion, of which $1.6 trillion is in bitcoin. Bitcoin rates at about 38 per cent below its October 2025 peak, recovering from its mid-year slump when it fell under 50 per cent, and this has been the mildest of its major "winters": the declines that followed the 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2021 peaks each cut its price by more than 75 per cent.

Further up the crypto wealth pyramid there are 290 centi-millionaires holding $100 million or more  while at the apex there are 23 crypto billionaires, nine of which hold it in bitcoin. Some 742 million individuals now hold digital assets in some amount, 371 million of them holding bitcoin, showing that ownership continued to broaden even as the market contracted.

The wealth statistics in the Crypto Wealth Report 2026 are based on market prices from 31 August 2026. They are calculated on a new methodology and are not comparable with the figures published in earlier editions of the report, which is why the report publishes no year-on-year change for any of its wealth figures.

The rise of bitcoin and digital assets in the past decade has minted a new generation of millionaires, attracting wealth management and private banks. However, crypto millionaires continue to face challenges around know-your-client checks that banks and other institutions must perform to establish source of wealth. There is a patchwork of regulations, with the US taking a more liberal approach under the Trump administration. For example, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said in April 2025 that some stablecoins would not fall under federal securities rules, paving the way for growth in this market. The US CLARITY Act, meanwhile, is continuing through the legislative process this week for the broader digital asset market.

The CLARITY Act seeks to classify digital assets into three categories; gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over spot and cash markets for digital commodities; creates a provisional registration regime; protects decentralized finance ; creates a new capital-raising pathway; and bans the US Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency.

Borders and movements
“Crypto may be borderless, but the families who own it are not,” Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, said. “They still live, pay tax, educate their children, and operate within national legal and regulatory systems. Crypto changes the traditional equation: the asset may no longer need the jurisdiction, but the owner still does. Increasingly, countries are competing not just to host capital, but to attract the people who control it.”

Henley & Partners said it has seen growing interest from crypto-wealth holders seeking advice on residence and citizenship options as they consider where to base themselves, their families, and their wider financial affairs. The firm advises private clients on the interaction between investment migration, jurisdictional choice, mobility, and long-term wealth planning, including the specific considerations that arise for holders of substantial digital assets.

The report shows that digital asset ownership skews sharply by age. The crypto-wealthy clients now approaching Henley & Partners are younger and more mobile than the private clients the firm advised a decade ago. This is the first generation to build significant fortunes in an asset that was never tied to a single country.

“The first generation of crypto wealth creators faces challenges very different from those of traditional family businesses. For many young entrepreneurs, the focus has shifted from building wealth to preserving it,” Jack Bernstein, head of the international tax group at Aird & Berlis, said.

Tomas Mico, group data protection officer at Henley & Partners, noted that the practical freedom depends on how the coins are held: “Bitcoins held directly move with their owner and follow the owner’s tax residence, which wealthy holders increasingly choose through residence and citizenship planning.”

The report weighs what the new infrastructure changed, and what it did not. Jean-Marie Mognetti, co-founder, president, and chief executive officer at CoinShares, notes that the focus for advisors has shifted: “The crucial question for wealth managers is therefore no longer simply which token to buy, or even how much digital asset exposure a client should hold, but how many different ways that allocation can earn its return.”

Stablecoins are also changing how digital wealth can move between financial centers. Dr Guneet Kaur, an independent researcher in financial technologies and AI, points out that the stablecoin payment rails move dollars without the correspondent banking system: “With such rails in place, dollar liquidity can now move between a Dubai custodian, a Singapore family office, and a European bank account inside minutes rather than days, without routing through a US correspondent bank at all.”

As demand for stablecoins grows, countries are responding by establishing comprehensive regulations. In 2025, Bahrain became the first Gulf state to introduce a dedicated regulatory framework for stablecoins, adding greater clarity on their issuance and integration into the financial system. Hong Kong has also adopted stablecoin regulations, to give another example.

Comparing crypto-friendly countries
The Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2026, a proprietary tool updated annually as part of the Crypto Wealth Report, benchmarks 36 countries offering residence and citizen ship pathways, assessing how effectively they embrace and regulate crypto and blockchain. Drawing on more than 900 data points, the index provides a view of the regulatory, tax, infrastructure, innovation, and adoption environments available to internationally-mobile digital asset investors.

Singapore leads the index for the fourth consecutive year, holding the highest Innovation and Technology score overall. The UAE takes second place, up from fifth last year, with 10 out of 10 for Tax-Friendliness and no tax on crypto trading, staking, or mining. Hong Kong is third, with the strongest Infrastructure Adoption and Economic Factors scores in the index, and the US is fourth, the only country to score a perfect 10 for Public Adoption. Switzerland completes the top five, scoring highly in Innovation and Technology and Economic Factors. Malta, which ranks sixth, holds the highest Regulatory Environment score in the index, with Thailand, the UK, Cyprus, and The Bahamas taking the remaining positions in the top 10. Newcomers in 2026 to the Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2026 include The Bahamas , Cayman Islands , Bahrain , Argentina , Maldives , and Paraguay .

Where crypto wealth Is heading
Investment migration destinations seeking to attract wealthy, globally-mobile digital asset investors are increasingly competing on regulatory clarity, with several also offering favorable taxation of digital assets. Dubai established itself as the world’s first standalone regulator for virtual assets in 2022, while Singapore licenses digital asset services through its Monetary Authority and does not levy capital gains tax on individual investors. Switzerland hosts a long-established blockchain cluster in Zug and exempts private capital gains.

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation , which took full effect in December 2024, created a harmonized regulatory framework for crypto assets across the EU, thus reducing the scope for member states to differentiate themselves through national crypto rules, placing greater emphasis on factors such as tax and residence policy in attracting mobile digital asset investors, the firm said. Portugal , which offers residence pathways for international investors and entrepreneurs, exempts digital asset gains on holdings of more than a year, while Italy combines a residence by investment pathway.

Henley & Partners’ recently published Global Wealth Mobility Framework measures the broader conditions that attract and retain globally-mobile wealth, including investor access, quality of life, and rule of law as well as tax competitiveness. Among the framework’s wealth mobility leaders, the UAE achieved a Wealth Mobility Competitiveness Score of 85.3 out of 100, with Singapore at 79.5, New Zealand at 75.8, the Cayman Islands at 74.3, and Cyprus at 73.5.

New reporting rules for crypto wealth
Seventy-six jurisdictions have signed up to the OECD’s reporting framework for crypto assets, with the first exchanges of information between 46 of them due in September 2027, the firm said. As transparency increases and regulatory frameworks mature, the jurisdiction in which a crypto-wealth holder lives, invests, and structures their affairs is becoming increasingly consequential.

A recent white paper from Edmond de Rothschild, the European private bank, says the crypto area is one that will benefit from a change in what HNW inheritors will want to devote their energies on, contrasting to some extent with the asset allocations of their elders.