Decoding Indian crypto investors’ love for meme coins

While Bitcoin and Ether are the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, Indian customers are more often than not drawn to cryptocurrencies that are based on jokes or memes

Indian crypto exchange WazirX recently published its proof of reserves (PoR) statement, that shows its customers’ cryptocurrency holdings and their respective storage locations. The exhibit revealed that the company, which serves over 15 million customers, had listed a meme-inspired crypto as its top token.

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WazirX’s top crypto holding, according to its PoR posting, was Shiba Inu [SHIB], a whimsical dog-themed token that was the fifteenth biggest crypto by market cap as of January 17. While the exact values change daily, WazirX’s SHIB holdings on behalf of customers made up slightly more than 19% of its total, and came in at around $63,804,084 on the same day. Meanwhile, the exchange’s Bitcoin holdings totalled less than half of that, at roughly $28,366,065.

By proportion, WazirX’s top crypto holdings for its customers were Shiba Inu [SHIB], Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], Dogecoin [DOGE], and Polygon [MATIC]. Two of these crypto assets - Shiba Inu and Dogecoin - are meme coins based on the fluffy-tailed Shiba Inu dog that is popular in Japan (and internet memes).

While the idea of investing real money in such playful assets might horrify most people, crypto investors have their own line of reasoning.

“Shibu Inu and Dogecoin are pretty close to the hearts of a lot of Indians, which is proven in our reserves,” Rajagopal Menon, Vice President at WazirX, told The Hindu about the exchange’s PoR.

Mr. Menon also pointed out that unlike Bitcoin (with 1 BTC worth over $21,000 on January 17), cryptocurrencies like Shiba Inu have a smaller “ticket size.” In other words, customers get more whole tokens in exchange for their investments. (1 SHIB was trading at around $0.00001049 on January 17.)