The number of crypto millionaires worldwide has fallen to 135,694 as the digital asset market contracted to $2.6 trillion, according to Henley & Partners' Crypto Wealth Report 2026. Bitcoin accounts for 92,272 of these millionaires, representing roughly $1.6 trillion of the total crypto market as of August 31. The decline represents a reversal from the sharp wealth expansion recorded during the previous market cycle, when crypto millionaires had climbed 95% to 172,300 in 2024 from 88,200 in 2023. Bitcoin millionaires numbered 85,400 in that 2024 report, while the market had 325 crypto centimillionaires and 28 billionaires. Despite the contraction, the current market downturn has done little to diminish the importance of where crypto wealth holders choose to establish themselves, as countries now compete to host the owners rather than the money itself.
Despite the decline in wealthy holders, global crypto ownership has continued to expand significantly. According to Henley & Partners' 2026 report, 742 million people worldwide now hold some amount of crypto, including 371 million Bitcoin holders. The report identified 290 crypto centimillionaires with digital assets worth at least $100 million, of which 151 held their wealth in Bitcoin. Another 23 people qualified as crypto billionaires, including nine whose wealth was tied to Bitcoin. Bitcoin was trading around 38% below its October 2025 peak when the report was compiled, with Henley describing the decline as milder than previous major Bitcoin downturns that exceeded 75%. The asset class keeps widening even though some fortunes inside it have diminished over the past year, with crypto millionaires increasingly mobile and governments competing not for where their wealth is held, but for where they choose to live, invest, and build their futures.
Singapore retained the top position in Henley's 2026 Crypto Adoption Index for the fourth consecutive year, followed by the UAE, Hong Kong, the US and Switzerland. The United Arab Emirates moved from fifth place to second, receiving a 10 out of 10 score for tax friendliness. Singapore licensed digital-asset services early through its Monetary Authority and leads the Henley Crypto Adoption Index — which features 36 countries that host residence or citizenship programs — for the fourth consecutive year, with one of the world's most developed regulated crypto markets. Hong Kong ranks third, the USA fourth, and Switzerland fifth, having spent more than a decade building the blockchain cluster in Zug, which now spans custodians, banks, and fund managers. Europe took a different route, writing one rulebook under MiCAR with a passportable license across the EU's 27 member states and three additional countries in the European Economic Area.
Tax authorities are preparing to receive more information about crypto holdings and transactions as international reporting systems take effect. According to Henley's report, 76 jurisdictions have signed up to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, with the first information exchanges among 46 jurisdictions expected in September 2027. The framework does not capture every form of onchain activity, with Chainalysis estimating that potentially taxable onchain crypto activity exceeded $457 billion globally in 2025, while transactions within the practical scope of international reporting rules accounted for roughly 14% of the identified total. As financial secrecy becomes increasingly difficult to sustain, countries must differentiate themselves on quality: competent regulation, dependable courts, physical safety, and a standard of life a family actually wants.
Henley has seen rising interest from wealthy digital asset holders seeking advice on residence and citizenship choices as they decide where to base their families and financial affairs. Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna, managing partner at Henley & Partners Switzerland, noted that self-custodied assets can move with their owners much faster than traditional wealth, increasing the role of residence, citizenship and regulatory choices in wealth planning. Investment migration provides a way to secure residence or citizenship in countries that offer what globally mobile families increasingly value: certainty of status, access to financial services, regulatory clarity, personal security, and a stable environment in which to live and invest. Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, emphasized that while crypto may move across borders with unprecedented ease, families who own it remain subject to national tax, legal and regulatory systems. These investors are also younger and more globally mobile than the clients advised a decade ago, with enquiries from crypto-wealthy clients holding steady throughout the drawdown but conversations broadening to encompass geographic and portfolio diversification, residence and tax planning, and family security.
