In recent times, there has been a “Cat King Battle” in the meme coin market. POPCAT and Shark Cat (SC) faced FUD from cat coin users due to IP copyright issues with their logos. However, with the help of lawyers, Shark Cat was able to obtain the copyright from its cat owner, leading to a rebound in its coin price. On the other hand, POPCAT has not yet resolved the related issues, prompting some users to transfer their holdings to SC.
Meanwhile, the recent resistance against VC has also affected the cat-themed token market. Users are showing their support for community-based meme cat coins. Some users believe that POPCAT, MICHI, and Shark Cat represent community meme coins, while projects like MEW and MANEKI are suspected to have VC support, leading to internal conflicts within the cat-themed memecoin community.
Based on the current market rankings, POPCAT holds the top spot in terms of market capitalization, with over 45,000 holders, demonstrating its strong community power. MICHI, since its deployment on April 8th, has experienced rapid growth in market capitalization, catching people’s attention.
POPCAT and SC faced FUD due to copyright issues. The owner of the POPCAT meme even expressed opposition to cryptocurrencies.
Despite the copyright controversy, the popularity of POPCAT has not diminished. From April 21st to April 27th, Google Trends showed that the interest index for Popcat reached a new high, surpassing its historical peak.
However, some users chose to transfer their assets from POPCAT to SC during the copyright dispute. One user expressed their decision to switch:
The anti-VC sentiment has spread to the cat coin market. A recent Twitter discussion by A16Z’s CTO Eddy Lazzarin about the value of meme coins sparked controversy. Eddy stated:
Many users in the community immediately voiced their opposition:
Through this Twitter discussion, it can be seen that users believe POPCAT, MICHI, and Shark Cat are community meme coins, while MEW and MANEKI face opposition from many users who believe they represent VC involvement. Although it is not easy to confirm the level of VC participation in meme coins, the battle for dominance in the cat coin market continues to heat up, affecting their respective rankings.
As of May 7th, the top three tokens with the highest market growth in the past two weeks based on SOL trading pairs are Michi (+547%), SC (+216%), and POPCAT (+81%). Among them, MICHI has performed well, with its market capitalization rising from $3 million since its deployment on April 8th to $110 million on May 8th. As of now, Popcat still has an astonishing 45,000 token holders, and this number continues to grow.
As of May 9th, the overall prices of meme coins with cat themes have experienced a slight correction. According to CoinGecko, the top 10 cat coins in terms of market capitalization are POPCAT ($442 million), MEW ($318 million), MOG ($177 million), WEN ($125 million), TOSHI ($120 million), MANEKI ($54.16 million), MEOW ($35.51 million), CAT ($34.60 million), $CWIF ($28.13 million), and PAJAMAS CAT ($21.09 million).
On the homepage of Dexscreener as of 9 am on May 9th, many popular tokens within the past 6 hours are also cat-themed or related to cats, such as CATGPT, CRODIE, PUSS, CATZILLA, and more.
From IP disputes to resistance against VC coins, the narrative in the cat coin community has clearly entered the next stage. At this moment of the “Cat King Battle,” users will choose which targets to support, and we look forward to the continuation of these exciting stories.