Schwab Survey Shows 60% of Crypto Investors Plan to Add Holdings

Some 60% of American cryptocurrency investors expect to add to their holdings within the next 12 months, according to Charles Schwab's Modern Wealth Survey, outpacing ETF owners at 56% and stock owners at 52%. The figure, drawn from an online study conducted for Charles Schwab by Logica Research among a national sample of Americans between August 24 and September 17, 2026, signals that retail allocation intent is now running ahead of every conventional asset class Schwab tracks.

The survey's substance is directional rather than sentimental. Growth potential and portfolio diversification rank as the most commonly cited benefits among both current owners and respondents who express interest in crypto. More than half of Americans familiar with cryptocurrency describe it as important or essential to building wealth — a framing that positions digital assets as a wealth-construction input, not a trading vehicle.

Ownership behavior points the same way. Half of current cryptocurrency holders treat the asset class as a complement to traditional investments rather than a substitute, and more than two in five Americans familiar with crypto expect it to become a more popular investment over time. Millennials remain the generation most likely to both own and be interested in cryptocurrency, which gives the adoption curve a demographic floor: the cohort entering its peak earning years is also the cohort most exposed to the asset class.

What does this change for allocation flows?

The practical question for practitioners is what a 60% add-intent figure actually moves. Intent surveys measure direction, not size, but the composition matters. When holders define crypto as a complement — half do — incremental flows arrive as satellite allocations inside diversified portfolios rather than as standalone speculative positions. That changes the servicing burden: brokers, RIAs and custodians face demand for reporting, rebalancing and tax treatment that assumes crypto sits alongside equities and ETFs in a single household view.

The generational skew sharpens the operational point. If Millennials dominate both ownership and interest, wealth-transfer mechanics over the coming decade will move crypto positions into inheritance and estate workflows that most advisory infrastructure still handles manually.

Institutional demand is established, but passive

Institutional appetite confirms the retail signal. A recent Binance research report concludes that institutional demand for digital assets is well established, and the EY-Parthenon and Coinbase 2026 survey finds 73% of institutions intend to increase their digital asset investments this year. AIMA and PwC report that 55% of traditional hedge funds now hold crypto, up from 47% in 2024 — an eight-point gain in roughly two years.

The distribution of that demand is the more consequential detail. Of institutions surveyed, 81% prefer spot exposure through a registered vehicle. Binance characterizes this as a reflection of market infrastructure rather than manager selection: institutions are not choosing between active crypto strategies so much as choosing between wrappers. Registered, passive spot vehicles — the structure familiar from the ETF complex — absorb the majority of intended allocation.

The structural read

Two flows are converging on the same destination. Retail investors, 60% of whom intend to add exposure, increasingly treat crypto as a portfolio complement. Institutions, 73% of which plan to increase allocations, route those allocations through registered passive wrappers at an 81% preference rate. The hedge fund holding rate, at 55% and rising from 47% in 2024, closes the loop on the professional segment.

What this changes for asset managers is straightforward: the competitive battleground shifts from strategy alpha to wrapper quality, custody arrangements, fee compression and regulatory standing. Active crypto management faces a shrinking share of a growing pie, while infrastructure providers — custodians, transfer agents, fund administrators — capture the volume.

The forward picture is a market-structure question. As both retail and institutional intent converts into execution through registered vehicles over the next 12 months, the binding constraint on adoption moves from demand to capacity: issuance pipelines, custody coverage and the speed at which advisory infrastructure absorbs a complement asset held across two generations of investors.