Table of Contents
Main conclusions
Cardano’s fans’ reputation as the loudest is supported, ranking as the most popular coin on Instagram Tether’s controversial nature is reflected, with the most comments per post Bitcoin has 55% more posts per day than Ethereum Tezos has the highest average number of likes per post
Introduction
Instagram dominates a lot of our lives these days. It’s rare to go to a social event and not see a relic of him on Mark Zuckerburg’s photo and video sharing platform the next day. While conversations about cryptocurrencies have a reputation for normally residing on platforms like Twitter or Reddit, nothing is immune from the reach of Instagram. We were curious to see which coins were the most popular on the platform, so we created a weighted index evaluating the average number of daily posts, as well as the average likes and comments on those posts, for the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Cardano is the most popular hashtag on Instagram
Cardano fans have a reputation for being among the most ardent supporters of cryptocurrencies, and the study here certainly confirms that. According to our weighted index, Cardano is the most popular cryptocurrency on Instagram. While the average number of daily posts is ninth, the average number of likes and comments on these posts is fifth. Two stablecoins appear in the top 5 – Binance USD in second and Tether in fourth. Interestingly, in the case of Tether, its average number of posts is relatively average at 18th. However, the number of likes and comments is third and second respectively, perhaps hinting at a heated debate among social media users over the reliability of the much-discussed bookings. Ethereum and Solana are the other top 5 coins, the two DeFi heavyweights keeping Uniswap out of the top 5.
Bitcoin is the subject of most daily posts
Bitcoin’s number one market cap is matched by its number one spot in terms of most posts with 9,600 posts per day. This is an impressive 55% more average daily posts than Ethereum in second place with 6,200 posts. It is more than double the value of Binance USD, which ranks third with 4,200 posts. Perhaps surprisingly, Dogecoin only gathers enough posts for fourth place with 2,200 posts a day.
Tether is the most talked about cryptocurrency
Tether, which as discussed above is no stranger to controversy, leads the table in terms of average comments per post with 199. This is not surprising as it is so central to the liquidity that underpins the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, but also so provocative in terms of its polarizing nature. Notably, Ethereum can only come in tenth place, while Bitcoin is even lower at 14th. Aave slots in behind Tether in second, the DeFi token ERC-20.
Tezos is the most liked cryptocurrency
Tezos has been aggressive in its advertising campaign, with sponsorship deals with Formula 1 teams McLaren and Red Bull, as well as football giant Manchester United. Their marketing also had an impact on Instagram. The Ethereum competitor ranks first with 9,700 average likes per post, 28% more than Aave in second with 7,600 likes. Again, Tether appears in third place, while our number one coin overall, Cardano, is fifth with 3,400 likes per post.
Conclusion
When it comes to cryptocurrency, community is a very overused word. Living online, these cryptocurrencies also see most of their speech taking place in the virtual world. Instagram may not be the first social media platform that comes to mind when thinking about crypto, but the numbers above show that it is nonetheless often used to post about crypto. Cardano, according to our study, is the highest ranked coin on Instagram. In terms of overall posts, no one disputes Bitcoin for sheer volume, but the most famous cryptocurrency disappoints by being 20th in likes and 14th in comments – taking 7th place overall. Perhaps it has already reached a large enough market cap that Instagram influencers and users are more attracted to currencies with high potential and short-term volatility?
Sources / Notes
Several cryptocurrencies were omitted from the sample, as mentions related to them could not be separated from other meanings of their names: Polkadot, Avalanche, Cosmos, Stellar, Internet Computer, Flow, Maker, Theta, and EOS. Hashtag data via https://www.flick.tech/ Top 50 cryptocurrencies pulled from https://coinmarketcap.com/
