Meme coins, which are frequently regarded as volatile and risky investments, remained among the top picks for Indian retail cryptocurrency investors in 2022. According to a report by crypto exchange CoinSwitch, which claims to have over 19 million users, meme coins were two of the top four most-held crypto assets in India.
According to the report, Bitcoin was the most held crypto asset, with 12% of users choosing to invest in the world’s most valuable crypto asset. This was followed by investments in Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Shiba Inu from 11.54%, 9.43%, and 6.92% of users, respectively. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are meme coins that were inspired by popular internet memes.
Experts have frequently noted that the appeal of meme coins stems primarily from popular culture, and their value can fall almost as quickly as it rises.
Serious tokens, on the other hand, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, have underlying platforms that are used to build other web3 applications, and thus derive value from such use cases.
Despite the drop in cryptocurrency prices, Indian investors avoided panic selling, according to the report. Investors also constructed a crypto portfolio and added tokens to increase equity.
This year, approximately 40% of crypto investments were made in utility tokens, with meme coins accounting for 13.14% of investments.
Women made up only 8% of all crypto investors in India. According to CoinSwitch, the proportion of female investors is increasing.
In terms of value, Delhi had the highest adoption, followed by Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. According to the report, the top tier 2 cities for adoption were Jaipur, Lucknow, and Pune.
Only 6% of funds were allocated to tokens associated with metaverse applications such as Axie Infinity and Decentraland. The AXS and MANA tokens, which gained popularity after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta last year, power the two metaverse games.
To be sure, while Bitcoin remains the most valuable crypto asset by market capitalization, its price fell as low as $16,000 following the FTX collapse, a sharp drop from over $60,000 in the first half of 2022.
According to the CoinSwitch report, investors between the ages of 18 and 25, which includes the GenZ population, made the most crypto investments (45%), while millennials between the ages of 26 and 35 made up 34% of the investors.
WazirX, another Indian exchange, announced earlier this week in its year-end report that cryptos worth $10 billion were traded on its platform between January and November 2022. WazirX also added 2.1 million new users despite a drop in trade volume due to India’s 30% tax on virtual digital assets.
