Popcat Hits $1 Billion Market Cap in Weekend Surge, Mog Follows Close Behind

Popcat Hits $1 Billion Market Cap in Weekend Surge, Mog Follows Close Behind

Meme coins Popcat (POPCAT) and Mog (MOG) saw a significant surge over the weekend, driven by a rising cat-themed narrative and their popularity as speculative bets among traders. Popcat briefly reached a market capitalization of $1 billion, emerging as the victor in a highly contested Polymarket bet.

Ether (ETH) has also shown strong performance, gaining over 5% in the past week as expectations mount for the launch of ETH exchange-traded funds (ETF) on July 23. Meanwhile, Solana’s SOL saw a remarkable 15% rise, buoyed by increased transactional volumes.

Since early this year, cat-themed tokens like Popcat and Mog have tended to rally in tandem with the rising prices of Solana’s SOL and Ether. These tokens, along with dog-themed tokens such as Bonk (BONK) and Dogecoin (DOGE), are often viewed as leveraged bets on the growth of their respective blockchains, earning the label of “beta bets” among crypto traders.

Popcat, based on the Solana blockchain, experienced a dramatic spike after a single $630,000 purchase late Sunday pushed its market capitalization over the $1 billion threshold. Concurrently, the Ethereum-based Mog rose by 8% to achieve a market capitalization of $960 million, marking a new all-time high and extending its two-week rally to over 70%, bolstered by its growing following on the social platform X.

A Polymarket bet concerning the market capitalization of cat-themed tokens, with some speculating these could surpass their dog-themed counterparts in the next bull cycle, has seen $4.6 million in trading volumes since its launch in March. The bet was resolved on Monday when Popcat crossed the $1 billion mark, despite some pullback in gains. Initially, the bet had odds as low as 2% in early April, ranking as the third-highest wager behind other cat-themed tokens, Keycat and Hobbes.

However, some Polymarket users have raised concerns about possible market manipulation influencing the bet in Popcat’s favor. “It’s clear that there was market manipulation here, but technically, it did cross $1 billion on one platform,” commented Polymarket user @The_Guru55. “A single large order causing a brief spike is highly questionable,” they added.

Despite these concerns, Polymarket’s resolution stands firm and remains undisputed as of Monday morning in Europe.