Unchained - Paid Partnership: How Nexo Wants You To Build Wealth Using Crypto

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

SPONSORED CONTENT: This video is a paid partnership with Nexo. It was produced in collaboration with Nexo and is separate from Unchained's editorial coverage. Nexo is a digital asset wealth platform offering yield products and crypto-backed lines of credit. Join Nexo and get up to $5,000 in rewards. Terms apply. Geo-restrictions, eligibility and terms apply. https://ref.nexo.com/_5MiOg41 ======================================================== A new report revealed that affluent investors aren't using crypto to build wealth. Nexo US COO Neil Steinhardt explains how the platform aims to fix that. ======================================================== About two-thirds of the affluent investors Nexo surveyed own crypto, but fewer than 5% have fully integrated it into how they build long-term wealth, according to the company's new report, The Future of Digital Wealth. Neil Steinhardt, COO of Nexo US, walks host Ryan S. Gladwin through the report's Crypto Integration Index and why he says friction, not conviction, is holding investors back. He covers why Argentina has the highest ownership but the lowest integration, and how incoming regulatory clarity has brought Nexo back to the US. Steinhardt also details how Nexo's crypto-backed credit lines work, what he heard from advisors at a registered investment advisor conference, and why a $35 trillion to $106 trillion wealth transfer could land with a generation that has high conviction in digital assets. He closes on why he thinks CeFi lenders, which he says outpaced DeFi lenders for the first time in Q2, are positioned for the convergence of TradFi and crypto. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ryan S. Gladwin - Freelance Journalist Guests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Neil Steinhardt - COO of Nexo US Timestamps 🔎 01:04 Why Neil says friction, not conviction, keeps crypto out of wealth plans 🧮 02:48 Inside Nexo's Crypto Integration Index 🌎 05:01 Other factors preventing crypto from integrating into wealth plans 🤝 06:50 How Nexo fixes friction in wealth building ⚖️ 08:27 How incoming regulatory clarity has brought Nexo back to the US 💳 10:15 How Nexo's crypto-backed credit lines work 👵 15:06 The coming wealth transfer to a generation with high crypto conviction 🏛️ 18:03 Investment advisors aren't advocating for crypto, here's how to change that 🏎️ 19:31 Nexo's card program and why Neil says wealth means experiences 📈 22:35 Why CeFi lenders outpaced DeFi lenders in Q2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is about to become a tremendous wealth transfer. So, you know, there's various studies out there. We have a study from CNBC that $35 to $106 trillion is going to come from baby boomers into this new generation. When that liquidity comes to a generation that has high conviction about digital assets, I think that bodes really, really well for the industry and it bodes especially well for a company like NXO. Hey, everyone, and welcome to a special unchained paid partnership interview. My name is Ryan S. Gladwin, and I'm here with COO of US NXO, Neil Steinhart, to discuss its recently published report, The Future of Digital Wealth, which revealed that high net worth investors aren't

using crypto to build wealth, despite often owning it. How are you, Neil? Doing great. Pleasure to meet you, Ryan. Heads up, everyone. This conversation is sponsored content, paid for by Nexo. It was produced in partnership with them, separate from the unchanged. newsroom. So, Neil, an interesting finding in your report is that conviction isn't the main barrier stopping these investors from using crypto to build wealth. Instead, it's this friction. Could you tell me a bit more about the report? Why did you commission it and what do you think about these findings? Sure. Let me start a little broader, maybe tell you a little bit about NXO and

then I think we can talk about this report, which is really fascinating. You know, NXO is a premier digital asset wealth platform. You know, we've been operating since 2018. We're available in over 200 jurisdictions. We have over $7 billion in assets under management, over 10 million users, and we've paid interest over $1.7 billion since our inception. And the wealth report is really interesting because it was kind of the first of his kind measuring not crypto ownership, but integration. So how integrated is your crypto into your long-term wealth-building strategies?

and, you know, how does it interact with an individual's, you know, life and plan? So, you know, to your point that you brought up, right, 67%-ish of the respondents own crypto. So, you know, ownership isn't a barrier. You know, if you look at the, you know, earlier cohorts, you know, in the study, they're a little more hesitant. Volatility is a big driver, right, for their hesitancy. But once you start owning it, it starts to behave much more like a regular asset, where you're concerned about the cost, the tax implications, right? Right, really normal vanilla things that kind of help drive investment decisions.

I think it's really interesting the idea of using crypto to build wealth rather than just investing in it. What is the difference here in using crypto to invest and to build? wealth. Okay. Yeah. So next is a wealth management platform, right? And so our idea is to, you know, make it really easy for people to put their their funds in securely. We have yield generation products. We have lines of credit, right? We have lots, lots of tools to help people build wealth. When we designed the report, we were really kind of looking at creating this proprietary crypto integration index, right? So not what is your sentiment, but really, you know, how are you using your crypto? And we looked at five different dimensions, and they're all equally weighted,

right? So it would be your allocation size, your timeline horizon, your retirement integration, your risk perception, and substitution, right? Are you using your existing assets like equities and transferring them into crypto? And that would be one of the bigger indicators about, you know, how integrated you are for the long term. And, you know, so the average CIA score across all three markets that we studied, which was the U.S., UK, and Argentina, was a 4.83. So most of the investors that we talked to were kind of in the middle of the market, but really weren't building wealth with it, like less than 5% of the respondents where we're actually fully integrated. Were you surprised to see that? Well, I think it's a good start, right? It's a snapshot in time,

and we're kind of early stage in this, you know, crypto adoption. And, It's, I think, shows a lot of potential. I said when you dive into the numbers and you start looking at cohorts by age, right, you have much higher conviction in 18 to 25, 25 to 35, right? But you have less liquidity for those people, right? So I think that the general macro trend is really actually very encouraging. You know, you just have an older cohort like myself, right? That might be a little less inclined, but they might have their strategies in place already.

So I think it's actually a kind of bullish-looking report when you actually dive into the numbers. Yeah, that conviction point is so interesting. What's stopping investors from using crypto to build wealth if conviction is so high? So kind of pre-entry and watcher, right, so the people that haven't invested are really very small investments, which is, you know, 34% are pre-entry, 18% are watchers. The volatility is the biggest driver for them. You know, but, you know, it's said, 65% of the respondents hold some crypto, right? So adoption is there, but then maybe not holding it in significant quantities or for significant time horizon.

But I do think that, you know, when you look at it and they start getting into the ownership, right, then that behavior starts to change. So, you know, convictions high. You know, you look at maybe the different markets is a good way to look at it, right? You look at Argentina that has the highest ownership, but the lowest integration index. And so what they're looking like is they're using it to kind of escape the volatility of their fiat currency. So they're coming in for a short term horizon. The U.S. actually has the lowest ownership, money by the highest CIA. So, you know, they're the most in, right?

There's significant more money. And they have the highest substitution of their assets, right? UK, you know, kind of in the middle there. So it is really kind of interesting, like when you tease out, right, because there are all a lot of dimensions that you kind of died into and see, you know, how that behavior is behaving. Yeah, it's really interesting. I was in Argentina not too long ago, and it was really interesting being on the ground and seeing that how locals were using cryptocurrency to, yeah, escape the local currencies,

crazy, crazy behaviors and the fluctuations and everything. One of the main reasons I saw in the report was friction. And I think this is a big thing that we realize when we first enter crypto, but don't think about much afterwards. Could you tell me a bit more about that friction that exists and how do we fix it as an industry? So, you know, at NXO, we're addressing it, you know, in a couple different ways. So, you know, obviously we have a very simple and intuitive platform, right? So it's easy to log in, right? It's easy to access our exchange and get your digital assets.

I think one of our biggest differentiators is having account management, as you look into the affluent users. And when we looked at this study, we defined affluent as 100,000 investable for the U.S. and UK and maybe 40,000 for Argentina, you know, especially in the U.S., people want their hands to be held. And, you know, they don't want to chat with a chatbot. They want to chat with a real person. They want to know that they're making the right decisions.

they can have some help in executing, you know, maybe some investment in some yield-bearing products, you know, maybe taking out a line of credit. So I think there's a mainstreaming of the platform, right, that kind of removes a lot of that friction. There's also a lot of regulatory clarity that comes in, right? It kind of makes this a little less risky to people, right? When there is no regulation, everything's the Wild West and people are left for themselves. when there is regulation, you know, then people have a little more comfort coming in. And I think that's kind of where we are right now.

So still very early stage, but we're seeing the mainstreaming of it. Yeah, let's speak about that regulation now. Obviously, last week at the time of recording, the Clarity Act got stalled just before hitting records, some new news dropped. How is your return to the U.S. market and how is this regulatory? back and forth impact in your re-entry? You know, it was, you know, the regulatory clarity was the kind of signal that said, I think it's time to come back, right?

And I think here's a market where we can operate. You know, we did it. We partnered with backed, right? So we get some institutional-grade custodian relationship with them. We get our rails. And, you know, by having those kind of strong partnerships, by having that regulatory clarity, you know, we can come in and freely operate. kind of focus on what we do best, right?

Which is, you know, helping generate yield and helping generate lines of credit. So, you know, generally, it's clear that, you know, it's not perfect, but it's coming. And you see it globally, right? So you see, you know, Mika in Europe, you know, the Clarity Act stole, but the genius that went through.

And I think, you know, you were alluding earlier, I think right before we jumped on the air, the CFTC, you know, issued some guidance, you know, around Bitcoin and stablecoin. and blockchain infrastructure. And so, you know, it's not quite the Clarity Act, but say, hey, the regulatory bodies are acting under what they're empowered to do.

And so I think that gives everybody a little sense of comfort that says, hey, you know, like not only is it being regulated, but it's here to stay, right? It's becoming a little more institutional and less discretionary about, you know, how we want to treat digital assets. Yeah, absolutely. Fingers crossed, I think it's going to come eventually

the Clarity Act. Let's say that I am one of these high net worth individuals that own crypto, but I'm not using it to build wealth. Disglaimer, I'm not a high net worth individual. But say I am, how could I use the NXO platform to build wealth? So, you know, obviously it's an asset class that we believe in, you know, very firmly. And obviously there's ups and downs. You know, it's interesting because we have all-time highs in the equities market. And the U.S. market is kind of interesting, right, because, you know, so many people are involved in the markets through their 401ks.

I mean, right, they might not be trading actively, but, you know, they have exposure to the market and their retirement is tied up in it. And so, you know, a platform next to works just like your regular wealth management platform, right? You can make some investments. You know, where we differ is the ease in which you can access your liquidity. from your investment. So, you know, like if you bought a house, right, and you have a mortgage and you built enough equity in your house, you can get a home equity line of credit, right?

If you have enough equities in your portfolio, you can get a security back line of credit. Nexo makes things really easy, right? So, you know, you can access liquidity from your portfolio with conservative loan to value ratios, right? We can do a line of credit up to $200 million, and we can fully automate a decision below $2 million, right, instantly. So as you're building wealth, right, you can access it, right, without tax implications, right,

because you're taking a line of credit and use that to either, you know, do further investments, enhance your lifestyle, take a vacation, enjoy some experiences. So, you know, I think it's a perfect blend and really easy to take advantage of your digital asset portfolio. Yeah, this credit line product, is one that was particularly interesting to me when I was checking out the platform. How is it different from sort of a regular loan option that I could get? Why would I use this over a traditional avenue? There's less hoops to jump through, right?

They're collateralized loans, right, based on your assets. You know, generally, we favor conservative loan to value ratios or kind of de-risk. And which one, you know, you can do. you know, fixed lines, variable lines. So there's a lot of flexibility in the program to support your needs. And, you know, should there become a very volatile market? And I don't know that the market's going to be as volatile as it has been historically. You know, we'll give you plenty of opportunity to, you know, keep your loan conforming or we can, you know, perform a partial liquidation and get you current. So, you know, generally your funds are very safe with us. And, you know, you can use your

credit to like said, fund your lifestyle, make further investments, you know, grow your wealth. Yeah, that safety question is a really good point as well because, again, in the report, security concerns is one of the reasons that people aren't using crypto to build wealth. How safe is the credit line option? And are we exposed to bad debt on the other side? How exactly does that work? So no. So, you know, we over collateralize those loans, right? We work with institutional grade partners like backed, right, to keep those, those

collaterals in place. So, no, they're really safe and secure. And, you know, and readily available. So, you know, unlike some traditional products, you know, like I said, we can make real-time decisions and make those funds available to you, you know, almost immediately. Absolutely. Awesome. Awesome. What is a common use for this credit line product amongst your users? What are you mostly seeing people use it for? You know, there's a wide variety of use cases, right? So like I said, you can, if you're bullish, you can, you know, buy more assets. But like I said, you can use the money to buy a car. You can use it to pay tuition. You can use it to pay for a house, right? So, you know, the fact matter is that your wealth isn't trapped. right, it's available to you and flexible to use, right? And you can keep those lines open to use them as you need them.

So I think people are familiar, you know, probably more familiar with Helox, you know, based on their home equity, you know, maybe a little less so about security back lines of credit. But these these crypto back lines of credit really make things much more available, much more easily for the masses. going back to the report briefly have any findings that you that you found in the report particularly influenced where nexos going well i think there's a couple things like you know the the risk perception only explains about 13 to 14 percent of the variation in the integration depth so generally as people get comfortable with the digital assets right the the risk perception really is

is not a driving force. And when you look at the conviction, right, 94% of the 18 to 25 year olds own crypto, right? They don't hold it with that 10-year horizon because they're younger, right? And, you know, the integration really peaks at 35 to 44, we're about 28% of the holders treated as a retirement asset. And that's a really interesting cohort. Because like I said, this is a moment in time, right, from 2026. that's an age where people are coming into their own professionally, right?

Obviously, to qualify for the survey, they had to have 100,000 investable, right? So we call it an affluent. But that conviction drops in the 55 plus, right? So in that 35 to 44 percent that has a high conviction, there is about to become a tremendous wealth transfer. So, you know, there's various studies out there. you know, we have a study from CNBC that $35 to $106 trillion is going to come from baby boomers into this new generation, right? And, you know, when that liquidity comes to a generation that has high conviction about digital assets, you know, I think that bodes really, really

well for the industry and it bodes especially well for a company like NXO. I think that retirement asset point you made as well was really interesting. Unique is crypto as a retirement. retirement asset. Is it, because again, I'm thinking about your credit line product here, are people like loaning against it to use it as a retirement asset? Can you tell me a bit more? Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, like, you know, how liquid is your 401k in the U.S., right? It's not so liquid, right? So, you know, here's a investment vehicle that is tremendously liquid and really easy. So I think that's a real big differentiator. You know, what's interesting, you know, when you go back at the report and you look, you know, for the most interesting,

integrated investors, right, those that have a CIA of 7 plus, they're thinking about security fees, tax implications, right? So they're not very discerning about the asset class. And I think that's, even though it's a small percentage of the cohort, it's a really interesting finding because, you know, these people are treating digital assets like regular assets. And now we're talking about, hey, what's the tax implication of making this purchase, right? What's the transaction fee going to be? And I think that bodes really well for the long-term crypto adoption.

Yeah, absolutely. And I agree. As crypto gets more integrated with traditional finance, more and more people are going to start thinking that way. But those concerns are still going to persist. How do we fix that? So like I said, I think it's building platforms. There is a roadmap out there.

You know, I just got back from a registered investment advisor conference in California. And I would say overwhelmingly, almost exclusively, none of the advisors were advocating for crypto investments through their firm and through their platforms. However, the follow question is, do you have clients that are investing in crypto? And invariably, yes, of course. We have lots of clients that are investing in crypto. It's like, oh, we would like to be introduced to these clients, right? We have a great platform for them, right?

We have lots of solutions for them. And so, you know, it is really interesting. But if you look at that traditional finance, that traditional RIA model, right, you understand, hey, I need a platform that's really easy to operate. I need a relationship to help guide me. These are really crucial decisions, right? So I'm not here offering investment advice. I'm saying, hey, you want to have your handheld a little bit.

And, you know, and you want to know that, hey, the funds are secure, right? They're easy to access. So I think, you know, the playbook is right in front of us. You want to behave like that. We're doing that today. And we're going to continue to do that, right, and introduce products that support that thesis. Yeah, you mentioned having lots of options at NXO.

What do you think one of the most underrated options at NXO is? So I don't think it's underrated, but, you know, we have an award-winning card program in Europe that we're looking to bring to the U.S. And, you know, that's even the easiest way to access liquidity from your holdings, right? because all you got to do is swipe a card. So we have an award-winning MasterCard program that's credit and debit, and you can put it in either mode. And we have an interesting report there as well that you can look at online

and kind of see what people are spending their money on. And so, you know, there's a 20% or so that's super mundane. And, you know, people want to access them. They're buying groceries and coffees. But you also see, you know, 20% for travel and experiences. and that's something that's very core to what nexus is all about, you know, with our F1 sponsorships and our tennis sponsorships and golf sponsorships and, you know, creating experiences for people, you know,

especially for high net worth people, right? They can get anything they want, but they want to get an experience. Yeah, that was what I wanted to ask you about next, because you brand yourself as a digital asset wealth platform, but what does wealth really mean to you? Does it extend past money and into experience? experiences. Absolutely. So, you know, when you think about it, right, if you can own anything you want, you know, it becomes a little less special, right? But, you know, nothing can replace,

you know, being at the finals of the Dallas Open, right, which is an event that we sponsor here in the States or going to Formula One and getting, you know, an experience there. You know, I've been to a couple of Formula One events and they're wild. And it's nice to go there and get the VIP treatment as well. Maybe you get a paddock pass, you know, maybe you get to talk to some drivers. So, you know, I think that's kind of what the wealth building is all about, right? It is about getting some financial freedom and getting to enjoy things, right? And so, you know, certainly like a line of credit or the card, you know, is a great way to be able to, you know, access some of that wealth and actually utilize it.

Just leaving it, you know, growing aside, you know, and waiting for future, you know, that's important too. But, you know, being able to enjoy it today is important as well. Yeah, absolutely. What's the point in having all this money if you can't do anything with it, right? I understand that there's a wealth club. Could you tell me a bit more about that? How exactly does that work? Yeah.

So, you know, depending on how much money you have on the platform, you know, can unlock different tiers, you know, the biggest drivers would be, you know, being able to generate higher rates for yield, you know, or have lower costs to borrowing. So, you know, as you grow with NXO, then we make the platform, you know, a little more advantageous for you. Awesome. I've got one last question for you that I think is really crucial to your project is how has demand for crypto-backed lending evolved over this past year? And how does NXO currently compete with other centralized crypto lenders? So, you know, it's been pretty interesting.

So, you know, kind of going back to Q2, you know, I think overall crypto lending was down and Nexos market share went up. So that actually bodes well. And it was actually the first quarter where C-Fi lenders, you know, outpaced defy lenders, you know, which is an interesting turn of events. So I think, you know, if I could advocate for C-Fi, it's a more. more simple user experience, right? So not trying to set up bold comparisons between the two.

But I think, you know, as you get mainstream adoption, you know, your typical experience is to log into your platform using a, you know, username and password and authenticator and generally not jumping through a lot of hoops, right, to access the platform. And so I think, you know, I think that bulge well broadly. But I also think, you know, as there's this convergence of, you know, tradfying crypto and that what we're seeing, you know, you're going to see, you know, a broader adoption. And Nexo was very, very well positioned to play in that space. Awesome. Neil, thank you so much for speaking with me. It was great having the chat. Pleasure to meet you and really enjoy it myself.

This video was a paid partnership. Any statements about the featured company or its products are its own and have not been independently verified by Unchained. Nothing in this video is investment, financial legal or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any asset or product discussed. Always do your own research before making any financial decision.