Henley & Partners counted 135,694 people holding at least $1 million in digital assets worldwide in its Crypto Wealth Report 2026. The firm said the number of holders with significant crypto wealth continued to grow even as bitcoin traded about 38% below its October 2025 all-time high.

As of Aug. 31, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.6 trillion, including $1.6 trillion in bitcoin, according to the report.

Bitcoin accounts for most crypto millionaires

Of the total number of crypto millionaires, 92,272 held at least $1 million in bitcoin. The report also identified 290 people with digital assets worth more than $100 million, including 151 whose wealth was specifically in bitcoin.

The number of crypto billionaires stood at 23, nine of whom achieved that status through bitcoin.

About 742 million people worldwide held digital assets in some form, including 371 million bitcoin holders, according to the report.

The report said the current market decline remained far smaller than previous major crypto downturns. Bitcoin lost more than 75% of its value after market peaks in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

Crypto wealth affects jurisdiction choices

Henley & Partners said the growth of crypto wealth was changing how affluent investors approached geography.

“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,” said Dominic Volek, the firm’s head of private clients.

Volek said the relative ease of moving crypto assets was making investors’ choice of residence, citizenship and regulatory environment more important.

Singapore leads crypto jurisdiction ranking

The Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2026 assessed 36 jurisdictions using more than 900 indicators covering regulation, taxation, infrastructure, innovation and crypto adoption.

Singapore ranked first for the fourth consecutive year. The United Arab Emirates rose from fifth place to second, followed by Hong Kong, the United States and Switzerland.

Malta, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and the Bahamas completed the top 10. The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Bahrain, Argentina, Maldives, Paraguay and Nauru were new entrants to the ranking.

Fintech and artificial-intelligence researcher Guneet Kaur said stablecoins allowed dollar liquidity to move between financial centers without relying on the traditional correspondent banking system.

Regulatory transparency for crypto holders is also increasing, according to the report. Seventy-six jurisdictions have joined the OECD crypto-asset reporting framework, and the first exchange of information among 46 countries is scheduled for September 2027. Henley & Partners said this was making tax residency, wealth structuring and jurisdiction selection increasingly important for holders of substantial digital capital.

A 2025 study by River analysts estimated that global bitcoin adoption stood at 3%, while 4% of the world’s population held the asset.

Source: Incrypted