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- Bitcoin remains the dominant source of millionaire-level crypto wealth.
- The largest crypto fortunes show greater diversification beyond Bitcoin.
- Henley rebuilt its methodology for the 2026 report.
- On-chain balances alone cannot reveal how many crypto millionaires exist.
Bitcoin remains the largest source of individual crypto wealth despite trading well below its 2025 peak, with Henley & Partners estimating that 135,694 people worldwide now hold at least $1 million in digital assets.
The Crypto Wealth Report 2026 puts the total digital-asset market at roughly $2.62 trillion as of August 31, including stablecoins. Bitcoin accounts for $1.56 trillion of that value and for 92,272 of the estimated crypto millionaires.
But the headline numbers need an important qualification. Henley rebuilt its methodology for this year’s report using public blockchain and market data, so the 2026 figures cannot be directly compared with previous editions.
That makes claims that more than 100,000 crypto millionaires disappeared over the past year statistically unsupported.
Crypto Wealth in 2026
Henley’s estimates show that Bitcoin’s share of individual crypto wealth declines as the wealth threshold rises. BTC represents about 68% of crypto millionaires, but roughly 52% of centi-millionaires and 40% of billionaires.
The declining Bitcoin share at higher wealth levels is partly explained by how the largest crypto fortunes are created. Henley notes that some of the wealthiest holders have large positions in tokens associated with networks they founded rather than diversified portfolios dominated by Bitcoin. Among five billionaires whose holdings
Henley says can be publicly identified, three primarily hold their own networks’ tokens and two hold Bitcoin.
Why 2026 Cannot Be Compared With Last Year
Henley’s 2025 report estimated 241,700 crypto millionaires, compared with 135,694 this year. Reading those figures as a roughly 44% collapse would be misleading.
The research firm explicitly says its 2026 wealth statistics use a new methodology and that earlier editions are not directly comparable. It therefore reports no year-on-year percentage changes.
Market declines still matter. Henley’s methodology uses a Bitcoin price of $78,008 on August 31, down 26% from $105,869 in June 2025. Ethereum declined about 4% over the comparison period, while the broader altcoin market contracted from approximately $940 billion to $450 billion.
Those price moves would naturally push some portfolios below millionaire thresholds. But the methodology change prevents researchers from separating that effect cleanly from changes caused by the new statistical model.
Henley even uses its old Bitcoin-millionaire estimate only as a cross-check, not as the starting point for calculating the 2026 population.
A Bitcoin Address Is Not a Bitcoin Millionaire
The methodology provides a useful example of why measuring crypto wealth is unusually difficult.
There were 123,222 Bitcoin addresses containing at least $1 million in BTC on August 31. That does not mean there were 123,222 BTC millionaires.
Large addresses can belong to exchanges or investment funds holding assets for thousands of customers. A single investor can control multiple wallets. Some high-value Bitcoin addresses may contain coins that have effectively been lost. Meanwhile, investors holding Bitcoin exclusively through ETFs may own no identifiable personal on-chain address at all.
Henley adjusts for each of these effects.
Its model first removes estimated institutional and custodial addresses, then makes an adjustment for lost or long-dormant coins. Multiple addresses are consolidated using address-to-owner assumptions, producing an estimate of 61,272 individuals holding at least $1 million in Bitcoin directly.
The model then adds approximately 31,000 estimated millionaire-level investors holding Bitcoin through ETFs but not directly on-chain.
That produces the central estimate of 92,272 Bitcoin millionaires.
Henley is unusually explicit about the uncertainty involved. It places the plausible range at roughly 74,000 to 114,000, with the ETF adjustment relying most heavily on judgment.
The 135,694 Figure Is Also a Model
Estimating the entire crypto-millionaire population requires another assumption.
Henley calculates that Bitcoin represents approximately 68% of crypto market capitalization once stablecoins are excluded. It assumes millionaire-level portfolios hold Bitcoin in roughly the same proportion and divides the estimated 92,272 Bitcoin millionaires by 68%.
That calculation produces:
- 92,272 ÷ 0.68 = 135,694 crypto millionaires
The report gives a plausible range of 132,000 to 154,000.
Stablecoins are excluded from this calculation because Henley argues that a significant portion of their supply sits in exchange, trading and settlement balances rather than personal investment portfolios.
This means 135,694 should be read as a central statistical estimate rather than a count of known individuals.
Millionaires Are a Tiny Part of Global Crypto Ownership
Henley estimates that approximately 742 million people worldwide own some cryptocurrency, including 371 million Bitcoin holders.
Its ownership estimate starts with 354 million Bitcoin owners reported in mid-2025 and applies the 4.9% increase in funded Bitcoin addresses observed through August 2026. Assuming Bitcoin continues to represent around half of crypto ownership produces the 742 million global figure.
Against that population, Henley’s millionaire estimate represents just 0.018% of crypto holders, or approximately one millionaire for every 5,500 people owning digital assets.
Corporate holdings are treated separately. Bitcoin owned by companies, including corporate treasury firms such as Strategy, is classified as institutional wealth and is not attributed to individual shareholders or executives unless their personal holdings are separately disclosed.
Crypto Wealth Is Becoming More Mobile, but Not Jurisdiction-Free
Henley also links the growth of digital wealth to competition among jurisdictions for wealthy residents.
Singapore ranks first in the firm’s 2026 Crypto Adoption Index, while the report examines factors including regulation, taxation, banking infrastructure and adoption when assessing jurisdictions for crypto investors.
Dominic Volek, Henley’s Group Head of Private Clients and a member of its executive committee, argues that the ability to transfer crypto across borders does not remove the owner’s exposure to national legal and regulatory systems. As reporting requirements increase, he says wealthy crypto holders are placing greater emphasis on regulatory quality, courts, physical security and international access when choosing where to establish themselves.
That geographic analysis is part of Henley’s business in residence and citizenship planning, an important context when interpreting the report. Its wealth estimates are therefore most useful when separated from the firm’s conclusions about investment migration.
For the 2026 edition, the most significant improvement is that readers can inspect the assumptions behind the headline numbers. The difference between 123,222 millionaire-level Bitcoin addresses and an estimated 92,272 Bitcoin millionaires shows why blockchain transparency does not make individual crypto wealth directly observable.
The ranges may ultimately be more informative than the headline totals. Henley estimates between 74,000 and 114,000 Bitcoin millionaires, a spread wide enough to show how strongly the result depends on assumptions about custody, lost coins, wallet ownership and off-chain ETF exposure.
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