A CoinShares survey of 2,230 affluent investors across seven major economies found that a majority already hold digital assets, with crypto averaging about 10% of their portfolios — even as many investors describe their financial advisers as overly cautious on the asset class.

The survey covered investors with at least $500,000 in investable assets across the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. Crypto ownership ranged from 54% in Sweden to roughly 70% in the US, UK, Germany and Switzerland. In five of the seven countries, at least 85% of existing crypto investors said they planned to increase their exposure in 2026.

The findings arrive as capital continues to flow into crypto through other channels. OKX raised an undisclosed amount at a $25 billion valuation, extending a round that drew $200 million from Intercontinental Exchange in March, while Strategy spent more than six times as much repurchasing its STRC preferred shares last week as it did buying Bitcoin.

Are investors really ahead of their advisers?

According to CoinShares, roughly four in 10 respondents in Switzerland, France, the US and Germany who worked with an adviser described them as overly cautious about digital assets. That gap between client appetite and professional advice suggests distribution channels, not demand, remain the bottleneck for institutional-grade crypto allocation.

Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, questioned the survey's 10% average allocation figure, saying his research suggests current allocations of 2% to 5% are more common. Even so, Edelman recommends much larger allocations of 10% to 40%, depending on an investor's risk tolerance.

What does the OKX raise signal?

OKX did not disclose the size of the extension, but the participant list signals its strategic direction: Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple and stablecoin issuer Circle joined existing backers. The round builds on the $200 million investment from Intercontinental Exchange in March.

The funding coincides with OKX's push into traditional finance. On Monday, an OKX-ICE joint venture filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a tokenized stock trading platform under the agency's new innovation exemption. The platform's launch remains subject to the filing and the exemption.

Why is Strategy buying back preferred stock instead of Bitcoin?

Strategy spent $176.3 million repurchasing 1.77 million STRC shares last week — more than six times the $28.7 million it spent acquiring 334 Bitcoin, according to a Monday 8-K filing with the SEC. The Bitcoin purchase brought holdings to exactly 848,000 BTC.

Bitcoin accumulation has slowed considerably. Strategy's holdings rose just 0.2% in the third quarter, after purchases of 7,218 BTC were partly offset by the sale of 5,553 BTC.

The buybacks appear to be working on the preferred side. STRC traded around $99.53, near its $100 par value, after falling to roughly $75 in late June. Strategy also filed a proxy seeking shareholder approval to pay dividends daily on STRC, STRF, STRK and STRD — a shift from the current twice-monthly STRC schedule and quarterly payments on the other three issues.

Shareholders vote on the proposal on Oct. 28. If approved, daily STRC dividends would begin in November, followed by STRF, STRK and STRD in January. Strategy said the changes would not affect dividend rates or overall payment obligations, but could affect reinvestment delays, liquidity and price stability.

Can Bitcoin's rally survive 5% Treasury yields?

Bitcoin posted a 43% third-quarter gain — its best third quarter since 2017 — and notched a third consecutive weekly advance, but Delphi Digital warned that "the grind higher is happening against real resistance," citing the Federal Reserve's September rate hike and Treasury yields at multi-decade highs.

Vanessa Grellet of Arche Capital countered that the debasement trade — favoring scarce assets like Bitcoin and gold as a hedge against declining fiat purchasing power — does not depend on low interest rates.

The rate outlook has shifted since the Fed's move. September payrolls showed just 29,000 jobs added against forecasts of 80,000, sharply lowering the odds of an October hike, according to CME FedWatch. New York Fed President John Williams said there was no urgency to raise rates again. Bitcoin briefly climbed above $87,000 last week before pulling back below $83,000 on Wednesday.

The Oct. 28 shareholder vote and the pending SEC decision on the OKX-ICE innovation exemption filing mark the next concrete checkpoints for the market-structure shifts now underway.