What's in the portfolio of major hedge funds and venture capital? Crypto research firm Messari made an overview of the first half of 2022. A remarkable finding: of the altcoins, Polkadot is the most in demand.

The first six months of 2022 in crypto were somewhat unsettled, to say the least. Macroeconomic conditions were rarely unfavorable and prices consequently fell sharply. Still, Messari's findings suggest that new institutional investors have entered the market.

We discuss a few key findings.

The top 5 coins

These are the top coins measured by the number of funds that had them in their portfolio.

1. Polkadot (DOT): 29 out of 82 funds have this coin in their portfolio. Polkadot grew faster than Ethereum in terms of number of developers in 2021 when it was so "old.
2. Oasis (ROSE)
3. Nervos (CKB): a newcomer
4. dYdX
5. Radicle (RAD)

It is striking that, except for Polkadot, these are not names in the top 100 in terms of market cap. In the top ten, however, are familiar names Avalanche and NEAR. In terms of total market value across all funds, Solana is the largest investment among hedge funds.

In the research paper it is noted that Terra was removed from the list, for reasons that are obvious. Terra was at number four before it collapsed. It shows that so-called smart money also invests in questionable projects.

Smart contract platforms most popular

The largest market sectors in which the funds invested are:

1. Smart contract platforms (Ethereum competitors)
2. Decentralized exchanges (dexes like Uniswap)
3. Data management solutions (think Filecoin)
4. Lending platforms (e.g. Compound)

As much as 37% invest in smart contract platforms.

Gaming and NFTs hot

Gaming is also hot among hedge funds, as evidenced by the 600 million that Andreesen Horowitz invested in a gaming fund. In addition, there are funds that already focus entirely on NFTs, which shows a specialization of venture capital. Messari also notes that there are funds that are considering buying individual 'blue chip' NFTs, such as a Bored Ape!