India's largest crypto exchange, WazirX, facilitated a record $43 billion worth of trading volumes in 2021, a rise of nearly 1,735 percent compared to last year. New customer signups shot up and the platform now has over 10 million users.

With Bitcoin reaching record highs and countries recognising the significance of the digital currencies, 2021 has been the year of cryptocurrencies and there is immense interest in cryptos from retail investors. A fact check showed that Google recorded more searches on "how to buy bitcoin" than "how to buy stocks".

Interestingly, gender has also played a significant role in defining the trends in the cryptocurrency market. While women dominated the Bitcoin market, Shiba Inu was the most preferred among men. WazirX saw an increase of over 1,000 percent in the number of women users on its platform and an 829 percent increase in the number of male users.

A user survey, conducted by WazirX to analyse the change in investor interest in cryptos over the last year, cast light on some interesting trends.

51 percent of investors who responded to the questionnaire released by WazirX reported having entered the cryptocurrency market because their friends and family recommended investing in it. In fact, 47 percent of the respondents have only begun their investment journey in the crypto market in the last six months.

44 percent of the respondents said cryptos make up to 10 percent of their total investment portfolio.

About 29 percent of individuals aged between 18 and 24 years have allocated 50 percent of their investment portfolio into cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, around 11 percent of individuals above the age of 51 have created a portfolio that has a 50 percent weightage to cryptos. The young investors have taken a special liking to the cryptos indeed!

With Bitcoin leading the pack, Tether, Shiba Inu, Dogecoin, WazirX Token, and Matic wre the most traded cryptocurrencies on the WazirX platform in the year 2021.

Around 61 percent of respondents said that investing in cryptocurrencies has helped them. Of these people, 78 percent believed cryptos have helped them financially. It is also good to note that as of November 30, 82 percent of WazirX users saw a growth in their crypto-centric portfolio.

The digital currency market is also attracting talents for employments. 51 percent of the respondents said they would want to work in the crypto industry. Many pointed out they preferred entrepreneurship, finance, and business development to be their top three career choices in the field of cryptos.

WazirX also helped empower over 962 creators through the WazirX NFT Marketplace. The creators sold over 262,896 WRX worth of NFTs through the WazirX platform (262,896 WRX is approximately equal to Rs 2.4 crore at current exchange rate).

According to WazirX, Indians are starting to recognise cryptos as an alternative asset class; the platform saw an increase of over 700 percent in signups from smaller cities in India.

With the government’s efforts to regulate the crypto market, India can soon be placed admirably on the map alongside other countries that deal in crypto. Many Indian institutional investors are looking forward to the crypto market bringing forward new applications for alternative coins such as Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, among many others. As metaverse is becoming increasingly common, WazirX expects an inflow in application in Decentralised Financing, NFTs, and GameFi.

First Published:Dec 16, 2021 9:57 PM IST