WazirX’s PoR and India’s Fascination with Memecoins3-min read

It’s no longer a mystery that meme coins have taken India by storm. WazirX, India’s most prominent cryptocurrency exchange, has shed light on the meteoric rise to fame of meme coins in the subcontinent.

Like Binance before it, WazirX has made public its proof of reserves (PoR) on the blockchain asset tracker Coin Gabbar. Some very interesting details about the habits and preferences of crypto enthusiasts in the country were revealed in the report.

A cryptocurrency exchange with over 15 million users was revealed in the report to have ranked a token based on a viral internet meme as its most valuable asset.

According to its Proof of Reserves (PoR) posting, WazirX’s largest cryptocurrency holding is Shiba Inu [SHIB], a token with a dog theme that was the fifteenth largest crypto by market cap as of January 17.

While the precise values change from day to day, on any given day WazirX’s SHIB holdings on behalf of customers amounted to somewhere around $63,804,084.

In contrast, the value of the Bitcoins held by the exchange was closer to $28,366,065.

WazirX held the largest quantities of Shiba Inu [SHIB], Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], Dogecoin [DOGE], and Polygon [MATIC].

Among these digital currencies are Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, both of which are based on the Shiba Inu, a popular breed of dog in Japan known for its fluffy tail.

Cryptocurrency investors, however, have their own compelling reasons to put their money into what most would consider to be a risky and unproven asset class.

According to Rajagopal Menon, Vice President of WazirX, Dogecoin and the Shiba Inu are “pretty close to the hearts of a lot of Indians,” as he explained to The Hindu about the exchange’s Proof of Reserves.

Mr. Menon also explained that cryptocurrencies like Shiba Inu have a lower “ticket size” than Bitcoin. To put it another way, when customers make an investment, they are rewarded with a greater number of complete tokens.

Dogecoin gained popularity in 2013, and its creators gave it one and only one purpose: to be a joke, in contrast to the many uses and ideals assigned to other cryptocurrencies.

In India, the Shiba Inu token is highly valued due to its sentimental value among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

In May 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its worst in India, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave a COVID-19 relief fund about a billion dollars’ worth of Shiba Inu tokens.

Even two years later, Shiba Inus are still quite fashionable, and the sentimental nature of Indian crypto investors is on full display in the PoR for WazirX.