polkadot (quotation DOT) has once again conquered the first position among the cryptocurrencies best managed by venture funds. According to a report released by market intelligence firm Messari, 35% of the monitored funds invested in Polkadot. The network derives its uniqueness from its design: a relay chain that connects many other smaller networks.
82 funds invested in cryptocurrencies
Messari conducted the research during the first half of 2022 (H1, 2022), publishing the results on June 24. The report looked at a total of 82 funds invested in cryptocurrencies and their portfolios to evaluate projects of interest. The analysis did not include Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), or any other funds other than those monitored by Messari.
Polkadot becomes the best managed 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) finished fifth. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) finished ninth with six others.
According to Kaushik Guduru, an intern in research analysis at Messari, Solana is the cryptocurrency with the highest market cap among the top 30 invested assets. In the previous analysis of the company, this top position was occupied by Earth (LUNA). However, its disastrous collapse left no competitor for Solana. Polkadot is now in second place after Solana, followed by Avalanche (AVAX), Uniswap (UNI) and FTX (FTT). Near Protocol (NEAR) and Cosmos Hub (ATOM) follow.
From his analysis, Messari concludes that the "frenzy" of smart contracts is still present among investors. He alludes to this as the top three cryptocurrency investments are all smart contract-enabled platforms. The presence of smart contracts creates the impression of real utility, favoring investment returns.
Cardano (ADA) is an example of a cryptocurrency project that had to adopt smart contracts to create a greater community of developers, users and investors. While the launch wasn't easy, the network continues to see significant activity from developers.
Game, metaverse and NFT
In addition to the top 50 cryptocurrencies, Messari shows that huge capital has also been poured into gaming, metaverse and NFT infrastructures. In this regard, Guduru notes that
Investments like these [gaming infrastructure, metaverse and NFT] expand the opportunities for funds to hold non-traditional crypto assets such as native NFTs or digital terrains.
An April report by DappRadar in partnership with the Blockchain Game Alliance showed similar results regarding blockchain gaming. Such DApps have seen a 2000% surge in the first quarter of 2022 on an annual basis.
In addition, during that period, investors invested $ 2,5 billion in gaming DApps, more than half of what they invested in the whole of 2021 ($ 4 billion). At the time, the report predicted that investments in blockchain gaming in the second quarter (which ends in two days) would increase by 150%.
