Popcat Crosses $1B, Mog Rallies as Solana, Ethereum Beta Bets Gain Favor

Popcat became the first cat-themed meme coin to hit $1 billion market capitalization, a resolved Polymarket bet shows.

Cat-themed meme coin popcat (POPCAT) became the first to hit $1 billion in market capitalization, a resolved Polymarket bet shows.

Both popcat and mog (MOG) surged over the weekend, driven by the cat narrative and their usage as beta bets by some traders.

Cat meme coin mog also rallied to a new peak, rising 8% on Monday to reach a $960 million capitalization.

Ether (ETH) has gained over 5% in the past week as ETH exchange-traded funds (ETF) are expected to start trading on July 23. Solana’s SOL rose 15% in the same period, driven by increased transactional volumes.

Cat-themed meme coin popcat hit $1 billion in market capitalization on Sunday evening, emerging as the winner in a highly traded Polymarket bet.

The market was resolved on Monday as the token briefly crossed the $1 billion level before paring gains. It had odds of as low as 2% in early April, and was the third-highest bet behind keycat and hobbes, two other cat-themed tokens.

However, some Polymarket users argued the market may have been manipulated in favor of popcat’s odds on the marketplace.

“Okay so this is interesting because that's clearly market manipulation, but technically it did cross $1 billion on 1 website. Someone here with a vested interest in Popcat has manipulated the market and pushed it over,” wrote Polymarket user @The_Guru55. “Literally a 1 second pump with 1 order on 1 website is pretty questionable,” they added.

Polymarket’s resolution remains in place and has not been disputed as of European morning hours Monday.

Cat tokens Rally as Beta Bets on Sol, Eth Price Action

Cat-themed tokens like popcat, mog and dogecoin (DOGE) have tended to rally this year as prices of Solana’s SOL and ether increase. These tokens are used by some traders as a leveraged way to bet on the growth of their underlying blockchains, which crypto traders refer to as beta bets.

Solana’s SOL has increased over 15% in the past week, driven by an uptick in transactional volumes on the blockchain. Meanwhile, ether has gained over 5% as several ether ETFs are expected to start trading on July 23.

Both mog and popcat have rallied significantly in the past month, rising over 70% and 1,100%, respectively. Both tokens are up over 10,000% year-to-date.

Popcat is a Solana-based meme token that was created in late 2021 as a parody of the popcat meme, which features an animated gray cat rapidly opening and closing its mouth. The token is used for governance of the popcat decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Mog is an ERC-20 token that was created in early 2022 by an anonymous collective as a "cult catcoin" with a community-driven narrative. The token is used to interact with the mog decentralized application (dapp), which features cat-themed games, artwork and music.