Why Crypto is Now a Important Part of the Wealthy’s Portfolio

Key Points:

• Almost half of Asian HNWIs surveyed allocate more than 10% of their investable assets to crypto, with the weighted average near 17%
• The primary driver for this adoption has shifted from short-term speculation to long-term wealth preservation and legacy planning, cited by 90% of respondents.
• Investors are demanding regulated, traditional-finance-friendly products like crypto Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that include staking yield

The high-net-worth investors (HNWIs) of Asia are transforming the global financial market, shifting the digital-asset frontier of speculation into the asset portfolio of long-term wealth management. 

According to a new report published by Swiss-Singaporean digital asset bank Sygnum, titied APAC HNWI Report 2025, crypto is no longer a side bet among the wealthy in the region. 

As per the report, nearly half of Asia’s wealthy investors now dedicating over 10% of their portfolios to digital assets, with a clear majority planning to increase this allocation.

Crypto is Becoming One of the Key Pillars of Asian Portfolio

One distinguishing feature of this market cycle is the scale of the allocation shift asserted by Sygnum.

The survey, targeting more than 270 HNWIs (over $1M investable assets) and Ultra HNWIs (over $25M) in ten major Asian markets, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea, reported that 87 percent of them already own digital assets.

Most importantly, the median crypto holding of this category is between 10 and 20 percent. This places Bitcoin and other tokens in the same discussion as other accepted alternative assets such as private equity or commodities as part of a complex portfolio.

The transformation is ideological as much as financial. Portfolio diversification is one of the primary reasons cited to invest in crypto (56% of those surveyed), and many of them do not see crypto as a gamble in the short-term, but as an alternative investment category. 

The Long-Term View: Preservation and Planning

The evidence suggets that the get rich quick attitude of the last cycles has been substituted by a serious, tactical approach by the rich. According to Sygnum, 90% of high-net-worth investors give a resounding yes to digital assets as an instrument that can be used in long-term wealth preservation and legacy planning.

This feeling is supported by the future intentions: 60% of participants are going to invest more in crypto within several years. 

They are not just hoping that a rally is imminent and 57% of HNWIs and 61% of UHNWIs are still in a long-term bullish position, who are looking forward to the next strong crypto cycle occurring over two-to-five-years. This tolerance shows a strong rooted belief in the financial maturation of the technology.

The Demand for Regulated Products and Yield

The products and services these investors require further supports the quest to the institutionally-level Digital Wealth Integration. Although Bitcoin and Ethereum are still pillars, 80% of the investors showed interest in additional crypto Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs).

The highest single asset demand is attracted to Solana at 52 because of its high performance and the level of activity in its development.

It is, perhaps, the most important discovery that 70% of the respondents would allocate or allocate more, in case staking yield were repackaged into ETF structures. 

Asia Takes on the Regulatory Race

The fast uptake in Asia cannot be disconnected with the progressive regulatory climate in the region. Examples such as Singapore (with its Monetary Authority of Singapore, MAS, structure) and Hong Kong have been keen in ensuring that they have a strong regulatory framework that is clear and strong and which instills confidence among investors.

According to a report by AMINA Bank, the volume of transactions in digital asset exchanges in Hong Kong has increased exponentially and bigger banks are incorporating crypto services, which signifies this regulatory clarity. This offers the institutional-grade security and custody benchmarks, which investors require. 

Approximately two-thirds of the respondents indicated that they need their private bank or wealth manager to show great standards of security before increasing exposure, which demonstrates that investors are bullish but at the same time prudent.

According to Gerald Goh, regulatory frameworks set in Singapore and Hong Kong have managed to create the appliances through which traditional wealth managers can provide crypto services and make Asia-Pacific one of the most rapidly emerging digital-asset channels in the world.