Bitcoin, Dogecoin most held cryptos in India in 2022

livemint.com:

New Delhi: Memecoins, which are often said to be volatile and risky investments, remained among the favorites for Indian retail crypto investors in 2022. According to a report by crypto exchange Coinswitch, which claims to have more than 19 million users, two of the top four most held crypto assets in India were memecoins.

The report, published on Wednesday, said that Bitcoin was the most held crypto asset, with 12% of users opting to invest in the world’s most valuable crypto asset. This was followed by Ethereum, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which saw investments from 11.54%, 9.43% and 6.92% users, respectively. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu fall under the category of memecoins, which are inspired by popular internet memes.

Experts have often noted that the appeal of memecoins often comes from popular culture, and their value can drop almost as fast as they rose. In contrast, serious tokens like Ether and Bitcoin have underlying platforms that are being used to build other web3 applications, and hence derive value from such use cases.

Interestingly though, the report also found that investors in India held on to their assets and avoided panic selling despite the recent crash in crypto prices. It said that retail investors in India have built a crypto portfolio and added tokens to increase equity. Around 40% of crypto investments during the year were made on tokens with utility, while memecoins accounted for 13.14% of total investments.

Only 6% of investments went to tokens related to metaverse applications, like Axie Infinity or Decentraland. The two metaverse games are driven by the AXS and MANA token that had gained popularity after Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta last year, signalling his goal to build a metaverse