Crypto Wealth Holds Up in 2026 as Bitcoin Retreats from Record Highs

Crypto Wealth Report 2026 | Press Release | Henley & Partners
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Crypto Wealth Holds Up in 2026 as Bitcoin Retreats from Record Highs

London, Tuesday 8 September 2026

There are 135,694 crypto millionaires worldwide, each holding USD 1 million or more in digital assets — and 92,272 are Bitcoin millionaires — according to the Crypto Wealth Report 2026 released today by leading international residence and citizenship advisory specialists Henley & Partners. The global crypto market is now worth USD 2.6 trillion, of which USD 1.6 trillion is in Bitcoin (as of 31 August 2026). Bitcoin currently trades at roughly 38% below its October 2025 peak, recovering from its mid-year slump when it fell under 50%, 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%.

Further up the crypto wealth pyramid are 290 centi-millionaires holding USD 100 million or more — 151 in Bitcoin alone — while at the apex are 23 crypto billionaires, 9 of them 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.

Dominic Volek, Group Head of Private Clients at Henley & Partners, says the portability of digital wealth is making residence and citizenship planning increasingly relevant to crypto investors and their families. “Crypto may be borderless, but the families who own it are not. 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 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.

Dr. Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna, Managing Partner at Henley & Partners Switzerland, says digital assets have fundamentally altered the relationship between wealth and geography. “Traditional wealth often crosses borders slowly, through intermediaries, or not at all. A self-custodied digital asset can move with its owner almost instantly. That makes the individual’s choice of residence, citizenship, and regulatory environment far more important. When wealth becomes highly mobile, planning around the person who owns it becomes critical.”

Ownership Widens Through the Downturn

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.

Jack Bernstein, Head of the International Tax Group at Aird & Berlis, says this younger generation’s priorities are also evolving: “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.”

The drawdown has also changed how crypto wealth is held and managed. Valeriano Lisanti, Founder at Sestertivm and Investment Manager at Centurionfx Group, argues that the market has changed shape around those holders, and that “active management in crypto markets is no longer a niche pursuit”. Tomas Mico, Group Data Protection Officer at Henley & Partners, notes 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 around their issuance and integration into the financial system.

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 citizenship pathways, assessing how effectively they embrace and regulate crypto and blockchain. Drawing on more than 900 data points, the index provides a comparative 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 2^nd place, up from 5^th last year, with 10 out of 10 for Tax-Friendliness and no tax on crypto trading, staking, or mining. Hong Kong is 3^rd, with the strongest Infrastructure Adoption and Economic Factors scores in the index, and the USA is 4^th, 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 ranks 6^th and 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 to the Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2026 in 2026 include The Bahamas (10^th), Cayman Islands (12^th), Bahrain (13^th), Argentina (26^th), Maldives (31^st), and Paraguay (35^th). Bahrain’s strong debut reflects its broader positioning as a destination for international investors and the appeal of countries that combine highly competitive taxation environments with business-friendly fundamentals. H.E. Noor bint Ali Alkhulaif, Minister of Sustainable Development, Chief Executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board, says: “Bahrain’s performance reflects the strengths that continue to attract international investors and professionals to the island nation. Bahrain offers a trusted, agile, and competitive environment supported by forward-looking regulation, an innovative and sophisticated financial services ecosystem, and attractive long-term residency options, reinforcing its position as a leading destination for global wealth and investment.”

The seventh new entrant on the index this year is Naoero (32^nd). Edward Clark, Chief Executive Officer at the Naoero Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Program, says: “Naoero was the first Pacific country to establish a dedicated digital asset regulator. The country did this because investors need to know the rules before they commit to anything. Alongside its citizenship program, that framework reflects a broader ambition to engage with international investors and participate in the rapidly evolving global digital economy.”

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 the world’s first standalone regulator for virtual assets in 2022, while Singapore licenses digital asset services through its Monetary Authority and levies no capital gains tax on individual investors. Switzerland, meanwhile, hosts the long-established blockchain cluster in Zug and exempts private capital gains.

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) took full effect in December 2024 and created a harmonized regulatory framework for crypto assets across the EU, reducing the scope for member states to differentiate themselves through national crypto rules and placing greater emphasis on factors such as tax and residence policy in attracting mobile digital asset investors. Portugal (ranked 23^rd in the Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2026), which offers residence pathways for international investors and entrepreneurs, exempts digital asset gains on holdings of more than a year, while Italy (19^th) combines a residence by investment pathway with a flat-tax regime for qualifying new residents, where the annual charge on foreign-source income has risen twice in two years, to EUR 300,000. Dr. Niklas J.R.M. Schmidt, Partner at Wolf Theiss, comments in the report that Europe is now the only major economy with a unified crypto rulebook spanning 30 countries, but asks: “Will this hard-won regulatory certainty act as a magnet for crypto capital, or will it stifle innovation?”

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.

António Henriques, Chief Executive Officer at Bison Bank, says that growing demand for regulatory predictability is also changing how investors approach geographic diversification: “In this new environment, jurisdictions themselves are becoming part of the asset allocation strategy. Just as investors diversify across asset classes, they are increasingly diversifying across geographies, banking relationships, and legal structures, transforming the very architecture of wealth into a risk management strategy.”

In the Caribbean, Antigua and Barbuda’s Citizenship by Investment Program recognizes documented digital assets when applicants evidence their source of funds, and St. Kitts and Nevis admits digital assets as a partial source of wealth for its program applicants. But when digital wealth reaches the due diligence desk, the wallet alone will not answer the questions asked. Daniel Hartnett, who leads the Enhanced Due Diligence business at LSEG Risk Intelligence, makes the point directly: “A wallet can show that value exists. It cannot tell the whole story of the person behind it.”

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. 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.

Volek says this is reinforcing the importance of residence and citizenship planning for internationally mobile investors. “Crypto may move across borders with unprecedented ease, but its owners still need to decide which jurisdictions they want to be connected to. As reporting requirements increase and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, the focus shifts to quality: competent regulation, dependable courts, physical safety, global access, and a standard of life a family actually wants. For crypto-wealth holders, a well-structured sovereign portfolio — combining residence, citizenship, and jurisdictional options — can provide greater flexibility, access, and resilience over the long term.”

The complete Crypto Wealth Report 2026 is available online.

Ends.

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.

Henley & Partners is the global leader in residence and citizenship planning. Each year, hundreds of wealthy individuals and their advisors rely on our expertise and experience in this area. The firm’s highly qualified professionals work together as one team in over 70 offices worldwide.

The concept of residence and citizenship planning was created by Henley & Partners in the 1990s. As globalization has expanded, residence and citizenship have become topics of significant interest among the increasing number of internationally mobile entrepreneurs and investors whom we proudly serve every day.

Henley & Partners also runs the world’s leading government advisory practice for wealth migration, which has raised more than USD 15 billion in foreign direct investment. Trusted by governments, the firm has been involved in strategic consulting and in the design, set-up, and operation of the world’s most successful residence and citizenship programs.

For further information, please contact:

Sarah Nicklin
Group Head of Public Relations
sarah.nicklin@henleyglobal.com
+27 72 464 8965

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