At this point, it can be truthfully said that crypto has now made its way into the mainstream. Bitcoin which used to only exist on a small part of the internet is now one of the most popular investment assets. As the years have gone by, other cryptocurrencies besides bitcoin have made their way to the forefront. A recent study encompasses just how popular these altcoins have gotten in places such as South Korea with its findings.

Ripple Tops Crypto List

The study which was carried out by various leading crypto exchanges in South Korea has revealed the cryptocurrencies that residents are mostly invested in. This study published its findings based on the dollar value of digital assets held by locals.

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Bitcoin, evidently, came out on top as the most popular crypto among South Korean investors. These investors were found to hold more than $5 billion worth of bitcoin, a total of 128,828 BTC. However, the shocker here would be the cryptocurrency that made 2nd place on the list. Ripple (XRP) came a close second with locals reportedly holding almost $4.8 billion worth of XRP tokens.

XRP trading at $0.68 | Source: XRPUSD on TradingView.com

The altcoin had beat out the second-largest digital asset Ethereum by about $300 million at around $4.5 billion worth of ETH held by investors. Ethereum’s competitor Cardano placed 4th on this list with about $1 billion held by investors. While beloved meme coin Dogecoin placed 5th on the list with investors holding approximately $900 million in DOGE alone.

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The study was aggregated across the top four exchanges in the region namely Bithumb, Coinone, Upbeat, and Korbit. It also found that investors had traded more than $7 trillion in cryptocurrencies alone in 2021, meaning that crypto activities in the region were higher compared to the Korean stock market. It also surpassed the trading volume on the junior Kosdaq.

The volume of bitcoin held by South Korean investors surpassed what they owned of Apple shares at $5.48 billion but came out less than what they held in Tesla shares, which currently sits at an impressive $16.9 billion worth of stocks.