Philadelphia has old money and new problems.
The metro spans 2.4 million households with a median income of $87,000. About 13% of households earn over $200k, putting roughly 312,000 households in that bracket.
Around 144,000 of those high-earning households have no financial advisor.
Philly and Crypto: Steady but Growing #
Philadelphia isn’t a crypto hotspot. It’s not Austin or Miami. The city has a traditional East Coast sensibility about money. Conservative. Skeptical of hype.
Crypto ownership here tracks close to the national average, around 28-30% of adults. Among affluent households, it skews higher. Self-directed investors who manage their own portfolios tend to include crypto as part of their Diversification.
The practical Philly approach means fewer people going all-in on speculative tokens. More people holding Bitcoin and Ethereum as long-term positions alongside traditional assets. It’s the “just in case” allocation. The hedge.
That’s actually smart. But even conservative crypto positions create tax and planning complexity that most people don’t think about until it’s a problem.
Digital Asset Complexity Creeps In #
You bought Bitcoin three years ago on Coinbase. Then you moved some to a hardware Wallet. Then you tried Ethereum. Then you staked some ETH. Then you swapped for a few other tokens because something looked interesting.
Each step added complexity.
Your cost basis isn’t just what you paid on Coinbase. It’s tracked separately for every lot, across every platform and Wallet. If you want to sell, which lots should you sell from? That depends on your tax situation, which depends on what else is happening in your financial life.
Staking rewards are income. They get taxed the year you receive them, at the value when you received them. Are you tracking that? Most people aren’t.
And if you’ve used any DeFi protocols, you might have triggered taxable events without even realizing it. Liquidity pools, Yield farming, Token swaps. Each one has implications.
This stuff accumulates quietly until you need to deal with it.
Why Remote Works for Crypto Wealth Management #
Philadelphia has financial advisors. Walk around Center City and you’ll see plenty of signs. But crypto-specialized advisors are different.
The advisors who’ve built real expertise in digital assets typically work remotely. Their client base is national, which means they’ve seen situations across different state tax regimes and Portfolio types. They’ve built practices around secure video communication and encrypted document sharing.
For crypto holders, this makes sense:
- You get access to specialists, not generalists who added crypto to their website
- Security conversations happen digitally anyway
- No need to schedule around commuting
- The relationship matches how you already manage your digital assets
What matters is finding someone who understands the specifics. Can they handle cost basis tracking across exchanges and wallets? Do they know how different transaction types get taxed? Can they help with Custody planning and estate issues?
Getting Help with Digital Asset Planning #
Digital Wealth Partners works remotely with crypto holders who need proper financial planning around their digital assets. If you’re in the Philly area with crypto as part of your Portfolio, they’re focused on exactly this. Check them out at digitalwealthpartners.net.
Those 144,000 high-income households without advisors include a lot of careful, practical people who haven’t fully thought through the crypto piece. The conservative approach to holding crypto doesn’t make managing it simpler.
