Crypto fund portfolios: Polkadot reigns as gaming, metaverse, and NFT infrastructure gain traction

• Polkadot has emerged as the best-held asset of the 82 crypto funds tracked by Messari crypto intelligence firm.
•  Other than the top 50 cryptocurrencies, capital has flowed into gaming, metaverse, and NFT infrastructure.

Polkadot (DOT) has once again taken up the top position among the best-hodled crypto assets by venture funds. According to a report published by market intelligence firm Messari, 35 percent of the funds it tracked had invested in Polkadot. The network draws its uniqueness from its design – having a relay chain that connects many other smaller networks.

Messari conducted the research throughout the first half of 2022 (H1, 2022), releasing the results on June 24. The report looked at a total of 82 crypto-invested funds, and their portfolios to gauge their projects of interest. The analysis did not include Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), or any other funds outside of those that Messari tracks.

Polkadot becomes best hodled digital asset in crypto fund portfolios

After Polkadot, the next best investments were Oasis Protocol (ROSE) and Nervos Network (CKB), in that order. dYdX (DYDX) and Radicle (RAD) tied in fourth place, while NEAR Protocol (NEAR) came in fifth. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) tied in ninth place with six others.

According to Kaushik Guduru, a research analysis intern at Messari, Solana is the cryptocurrency with the highest market cap among the top 30 invested assets. In the company’s previous analysis, this top position was held by Terra (LUNA). However, its disastrous collapse left no competitor for Solana. Polkadot now comes in second place after Solana, followed by Avalanche (AVAX), Uniswap (UNI), and FTX (FTT). Thereafter, come Near Protocol (NEAR), and Cosmos Hub (ATOM).

From its analysis, Messari concludes that the smart contract “frenzy” is still present among investors. It alludes to this since the three top crypto investments are all smart contract-enabled platforms. Having smart contracts creates the impression of real utility, which favors investment returns. 

Cardano (ADA) is an example of a crypto project that had to embrace smart contracts to build a greater community of developers, users, and investors. And even though its rollout was not smooth, the network continues to see significant developer activity.

Gaming, metaverse, and NFTs

Other than the top 50 cryptocurrencies, Messari shows that huge capital has also been poured into gaming, metaverse, and NFT infrastructure. Of these, Guduru notes:

Investments like these [gaming, metaverse, and NFT infrastructure] expand the opportunities for funds to hold non-traditional crypto assets such as native NFTs or digital land.

An April report by DappRadar in conjunction with Blockchain Game Alliance showed similar findings regarding blockchain gaming. Such DApps had surged by a profound 2000 percent in Q1, 2022 year-over-year.

In that period also, investors put in $2.5 billion into gaming DApps, which is more than half that invested in the whole of 2021 ($4B). At the time, the report projected Q2’s (ends in two days) investments in blockchain gaming to hike by 150 percent.