Callback
+41 44 266 22 22
Since Henley & Partners first published the Crypto Wealth Report in September 2023, its headline figures have been widely cited in the financial press. Previous editions estimated the number of crypto millionaires, centi-millionaires, and billionaires using an in-house database of high-net-worth individuals, benchmarked against wealth-tier models and cross-checked with publicly available information on large holdings from major crypto platforms.
The estimates addressed a question that extends beyond the crypto market itself. Digital assets have created a generation of wealthy individuals who are young, internationally mobile, and willing to relocate. Their decisions can have implications for tax revenues, investment flows, and the long-term competitiveness of the countries they choose.
Crypto is unusual among asset classes because holdings are visible while their owners are not. Public blockchains record balances against addresses rather than individuals. One individual may control multiple addresses, while a single address may hold assets on behalf of millions of customers.
Several million Bitcoin are permanently inaccessible but remain visible in blockchain totals. At the same time, a growing share of crypto wealth is held through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and custodial accounts, meaning that the underlying investors do not appear individually on the public ledger.
Market volatility adds another complication. Prices can change significantly within a year, moving tens of thousands of individuals across a wealth threshold without any assets changing hands. Any estimate of crypto wealth is therefore a snapshot taken on a specific date.
The 2026 edition builds its headline wealth statistics from the public ledger. The calculation begins with the number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least USD 1 million on a stated date and then applies a series of adjustments to estimate the number of individual owners.
Four principal adjustments convert the address count into an estimate of individuals. Addresses attributed to exchanges, funds, and corporate treasuries are removed because they hold assets on behalf of others. Bitcoin considered lost or inactive for many years is excluded. Addresses are consolidated where the evidence indicates that a single owner controls several of them. Individuals whose exposure is held solely through ETFs, and who therefore do not appear individually on the ledger, are then added.
The resulting Bitcoin estimate is extended to the broader crypto asset class using Bitcoin’s measured share of total crypto market value. Higher wealth tiers are estimated from the shape of the wealth distribution, with the largest individual holdings assessed separately using publicly available attribution data.
The evidence supporting this approach has strengthened considerably in recent years. Public attribution datasets identify many of the largest exchange, custodian, fund, and corporate treasury addresses, making it possible to distinguish institutional balances from personal holdings. Spot Bitcoin ETFs publish information on their holdings, allowing off-chain exposure to be incorporated. Academic and industry research also provides evidence on patterns of address ownership and the relationship between addresses and individual holders.
Each stage of the calculation begins with data from a named public source and applies a stated range to assumptions that require judgment. The accompanying methodology sets out the steps, arithmetic, assumptions, and sources in full. Readers can therefore test alternative assumptions and follow their effect through the calculation.
The principal advantage of this approach is auditability. The inputs and assumptions underlying the estimates can be examined, tested, and replicated.
The 2026 global crypto wealth figures are not directly comparable with those published in earlier editions of the Crypto Wealth Report because the underlying methodology has changed.
Any differences between the 2025 and 2026 figures would reflect both movements in the crypto market and the change in methodology. The two effects cannot be reliably separated. Calculating a year-on-year growth rate across this methodological break would therefore imply a level of precision that the data does not support.
For this reason, the 2026 edition presents the current figures without reporting year-on-year changes.
The methodology could also be applied retrospectively to historical blockchain data. Doing so would create a consistent series based on the same approach and could enable comparable growth rates to be reported in future editions.
Each wealth figure is presented as a central estimate, and the methodology states a range for each modeled figure. The central estimate represents the result when each methodological judgment is set at its central value. The range shows how the result changes when those judgments are set at their stated bounds.
The range therefore reflects the uncertainty inherent in the calculation, while the central estimate represents the single figure best supported by the methodology. Because the calculation is not linear at every stage, the central estimate will not necessarily fall at the midpoint of the range.
Three points of scope are important. First, the figures estimate individual wealth. Crypto assets held by companies, including Bitcoin treasury companies, are treated as institutional holdings. Separately disclosed personal holdings of company founders may, however, be counted as individual wealth.
Second, stablecoins are excluded from the step that extends the Bitcoin estimate to the broader crypto market because a significant share of their supply serves exchange, liquidity, and settlement functions rather than representing personal investment holdings.
Third, published user counts and market values are used directly rather than estimated by the methodology. No uncertainty range is therefore applied to those figures.
Because the methodology is repeatable and its inputs are drawn from named public sources, the estimates can be refreshed for different dates and assessed against the underlying data and assumptions.
The new approach strengthens Henley & Partners’ research on private wealth by increasing the transparency, analytical rigor, and reproducibility of the Crypto Wealth Report methodology.
As the global leader in residence and citizenship planning, Henley & Partners is best placed to advise you and your family. Contact us for a free consultation.
