A Sixth Of Urban Indians Now Own Crypto

As much as 83% of India’s urban population has a common understanding of the crypto sector, while 16% have actual ownership of digital assets, a study by Kantar, a consulting firm, reveals. However, the report also suggests that the nature of cryptocurrencies is still volatile and largely affected by tweets or news around the sector.

The researchers at Kantar gave a prime example with Elon Musk’s tweets, which focus around Bitcoin and his Tesla company, that managed to negatively impact the world’s largest crypto to date, and the rest of the sector in May 2021. However, Musk’s Dogecoin adoption saw its prices skyrocket and make it among the ten largest cryptos based on market capitalization.

Meanwhile, the Kantar research about crypto sentiment in India is the first of its kind, with most Indians currently understanding the core principles and mechanisms of cryptocurrencies.

“This is the first of its kind research study on cryptocurrency in India. We met close to 2,000 consumers and saw that awareness levels are clearly quite high. Consumers are willing to invest in the product and are looking at diversification of their portfolio among high-risk products. Engagement with various crypto exchanges also indicates that ownership numbers seem likely to increase in the future,” Anand Parameswaran, executive director of Kantar’s insights division, noted.

It turns out that the age group of 21-35 years capture 18% of all crypto holders in India, with the top five metropolitans accounting for a fifth of Indians owning cryptocurrencies, with Delhi topping the charts at 21% followed by Mumbai at 17%, Bangalore at 12%, Hyderabad at 7% and Pune at 6%. Furthermore, most of the crypto owners in India have a high-risk appetite, comprising 31% shares and 21% mutual funds, as opposed to 19% fixed deposits and 16% life insurance.

Crypto owners in India also tend to have a diversified financial portfolio, with an average number of financial products per crypto investor is higher (6.6) than those who intend to go into the crypto sector (5.2). Non-crypto investors have 4.6 products in their portfolios, in comparison.

“While most perceive cryptocurrency currently as a digital currency, it is also perceived by the majority as an alternate form of investment. Cryptocurrency thus can be a potential competition to alternate investment instruments like gold,” co-founder of Frrole AI, Amanpreet Kalkat, stated.

Bitcoin is by far the leader in crypto investments in India, as 75% of crypto-holders own Bitcoin. Dogecoin is second with 47%, while Ethereum, Binance Coin, and Ripple are sitting at 40%, 23%, and 18%, respectively.

Furthermore, crypto exchanges like WazirX, Zebpay, Coinswitch, and Kuber are most used to purchase digital assets in India.