Tier 2 Cities & Women Drive Crypto Investments Rise in India

By: WE staff | Thursday, 4 December 2025

• According to a report by CoinDCX in 2025, crypto investing is entering a new phase in India
• Investors are moving beyond the idea that crypto only means Bitcoin
• This may indicate that investors are studying the different projects and their practical use cases

Crypto investing in India seems to be entering a whole new phase. According to CoinDCX's annual report, 2025: The Story of Crypto in India, investors are gradually shifting away from the notion that crypto equates to Bitcoin and toward diversification and long-term investment strategies.

Today, the average Indian investor holds roughly five tokens, up from two to three in 2022, showing that people are keener on exploring different projects and their use cases.

Layer-1 tokens like Ethereum, Solana, and SUI dominate portfolio volumes with 43.3%, Bitcoin accounts for 26.5 percent, and meme coins account for 11.8 percent.

CoinDCX attributes this shift to a better understanding of the fundamentals-for instance, many investors now view Ethereum as a platform for decentralized finance, tokenization, and various applications.

This is similar to sector-based investing in equities, where investors are categorizing tokens into themes, such as DeFi, AI-related tokens, or scaling solutions.

Cities like Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai witnessed significant growth in Ethereum trading. For the first time, Ethereum volumes in Mumbai recorded higher numbers than Bitcoin. Solana trading in Pune jumped up fourfold.

The report also points out that the average investor age went up from 25-32 years, insinuating more financially stable users are joining this asset class.

Today, the contribution of Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to India's crypto user base stands at an impressive 40 percent, marking perhaps the biggest shift towards adoption. In Lucknow, Ethereum volumes surged five-fold to make the city a significant trading hub for SUI.

Pune saw the most rapid overall growth, with its trading volumes growing ten-fold. Ethereum trading in Jaipur overshot Bitcoin trading for the first time.

Other significant trading hubs that emerged included Bhopal, Chandigarh, Indore, Guwahati and Ludhiana. If it hasn't already, this means India's heartland has begun moving from passive observation to active participation, says the report.

Female participation doubled over the year, helped by improved educational resources and easier-to-use platforms. Kolkata topped the list with the most number of women investors, closely followed by Delhi and Mumbai.

A lot of non-metro cities, including Bhubaneswar, Kochi and Vadodara, also recorded healthy growth. The asset classes chosen were broadly diversified, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, XRP, Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche.

Looking ahead, CoinDCX Co-founder Sumit Gupta thinks 2026 could mark the next generation of digital finance in India.

According to him, the market might be less dependent on traditional Bitcoin halving cycles and more influenced by research-driven decisions and institutional involvement.

If more than half of global hedge funds already hold crypto and a number of them plan to increase their exposure, the report says long-term, steady growth may continue.