Cats In, Dogs and Frogs Out: Meme Coin Meta May Be Shifting

Every dog has its day. But now it's the cats' time to shine.

Over the past seven days, cat-themed tokens are the biggest gainers among the major crypto categories as defined by CoinGecko. Climbing 40% during the span, cat-themed coins have outperformed dog and frog meme coins, as well as more serious categories like layer-1 blockchain coins and DeFi protocols.

Leading the charge is Keyboard Cat (KEYCAT) on Ethereum layer-2 network Base, which is up 96%, while Solana’s Michi (MICHI) similarly soared 93.6%. Alongside them, Kitten Haimer (KHAI) leaped 59%, Popcat (POPCAT) jumped 56%, Shark Cat (SC) climbed 51%, and MOG is up 20%

Popcat’s rise has been particularly celebrated as some reports showed it breaking past a $900 million market cap, although CoinGecko has it falling just short. This comes the same week that Crypto.com enabled deposits and withdrawals for the cat coin.

In fact, the cat coin frenzy has gotten so big that degen traders are starting to bet via Polymarket on which cat will be the first to reach a $1 billion fully diluted valuation (FDV). According to crypto gamblers, Popcat is currently the most likely single token to reach this mark with a 45% chance, but “other/none in 2024” is leading at 50%. 

On Tuesday, Coinbase posted an advertisement featuring a cat, allowing users to mint the advert as an NFT. Some cat coin projects, including Shark Cat, then got involved in the comments. And yes, loads of meme coins based on the Coinbase cat were also launched—the most successful of which has reached a $12 million market cap.

Broadly, the meme coin market has performed well this week, rising 19.2%. Other big winners include the Ethereum-based LandWolf (WOLF) up 95.6%, nicotine pouch-inpsired ZynCoin (ZYN) 88%, and Andy Eth (ANDY) climbing 64.2%. Both WOLF and ANDY are inspired by the work of Matt Furie, the artist behind the famed Pepe meme character.

Meanwhile the established top dogs have posted less impressive gains in comparison. Dogecoin (DOGE) is up 10.9% over the last week, with the Ethereum-based Shiba Inu (SHIB) rising 13.9%, and Solana’s Bonk (BONK) climbing just 2.4%.

Edited by Andrew Hayward