$40 Trillion Wealth Surge for Households in 2025 Leaves Crypto Out of the Conversation

According to the McKinsey Global Institute's report 'Global Balance Sheet 2026', global households gained $40 trillion in wealth in 2025. This translates to a total household net worth of $570 trillion, a staggering increase of 7.3% over the previous year. The world's overall balance sheet of assets swelled to nearly $1.8 quadrillion, up from $1.7 quadrillion in 2024.

The report finds that only about 20% of this household wealth growth came from real capital formation, meaning actual investment in productive assets like factories, infrastructure, or businesses. The remaining 58-60% of the gains came from asset prices rising faster than inflation.

The geographic breakdown reveals a familiar pattern, with US and Canadian equity valuations doing the heavy lifting to drive global wealth increase. Meanwhile, several major economies including China, France, and Germany saw real estate prices decline.

Notably, the report does not mention crypto or digital assets at all, despite their growing presence in the market. The methodology likely captures crypto holdings indirectly through equity valuations of publicly traded companies with Bitcoin exposure, but crypto remains absent from the conversation at McKinsey's level.