Original author: Weilin
After the cat coin replaced the dogecoin and rushed to the forefront of the market in the last round, the meme coin market has recently staged a Elvis hegemony. First, POPCAT and Shark Cat (SC token) were once FUDed by cat coin users because of the IP copyright issue of the logo, but later, with the help of lawyers, the Shark Cat team obtained the copyright from the cat owner, causing the price of Shark Cat (SC) to rebound. At present, POPCAT has not solved the relevant problems, which has also prompted some users to transfer their holdings to SC.
At the same time, the recent anti-VC trend has also affected the cat-themed tokens, a sub-sector of MEME. In response, users are using their own ways to support community-based meme cat coins. Some users believe that POPCAT, MICHI, and Shark Cat represent community meme coins, while similar projects such as MEW and MANEKI are suspected of being supported by VCs, and cat-themed Memecoins are clearly experiencing internal strife.
Judging from the current market capitalization ranking, POPCAT is firmly in the first place in market capitalization, with more than 45,000 holders, demonstrating a strong community force. And MICHI has seen a rapid growth in market capitalization since its deployment on April 8, which is also eye-catching.
POPCAT and SC were accidentally hit by FUD due to copyright
POPCAT is now the cat coin with the highest market value. As of May 9, according to Coingecko data, POPCATs market value exceeded $440 million. From the end of March to mid-April, its market value fell from $356 million to $120 million, but it has risen by about $480 million since mid-April.
Shark Cat is also one of the best performing and mature cat-themed meme coins. The most recent significant growth occurred on the evening of May 1, when SC rose from $0.045 to $0.1245 on the evening of May 2, an increase of 176.7%.
Shark Cats growth is mainly due to the Shark Cat team locking down the rights to their logo. There has been a lot of FUD and drama around this issue lately, with Shark Cats owner (real name Nala) demanding payment from Shark Cat for the IP and wanting to control the rights to use her cats image.
Soon after, the team resolved the FUD problem by acquiring Nala’s intellectual property rights. This also means that SharkCat may show greater growth potential and may move forward.
Meanwhile, POPCAT has also encountered FUD for not having IP copyright. The owner of the cat from which this meme originated even expressed opposition to cryptocurrency.
Xavier, owner of Popcat, said on the X platform: “My cat is my cat and I am absolutely against cryptocurrency.”
But some users expressed their continued support for POPCAT: It is obvious that these people are from other cat communities and want to rotate.
The popularity of POPCAT has not decreased due to FUD. From April 21 to April 27, Google Trends showed that the interest index of the topic of Popcat reached a new high, exceeding the historical peak.
However, some users chose to transfer assets from POPCAT to SC during the copyright storm. One user said: $POPCAT was fud with the same IP problem as $SC. It was said that it was MewsWorld (MEW) fud. Its a pity that the money eventually went to $SC. $SC is the only meme that has solved the IP problem of physical cats, so I moved part of my $POPCAT position to $SC.
The anti-VC trend is blowing towards CatCoin. Has the world suffered from VC for a long time?
In the meme coin market, Eddy Lazzarin, CTO of venture capital firm A16Z, recently caused controversy in a discussion post on Twitter about the value of Meme coin. Eddy said: Memecoin has changed the public, regulators, and entrepreneurs views on cryptocurrency. At best, it looks like a risky casino, or a series of false promises that cover up the casino. This has a profound impact on the adoption of encryption technology, laws and regulations, and the behavior of builders. I see these damages every day.
Many users in the community immediately objected, saying, Memes are our chance to flip big institutions. I like memes, and although most memes cost me money, I only need to grab one to greatly improve my life. But if I invest in projects invested by large institutions, I will have to wait for several days to get a meager return.
This discussion has also affected the niche field of cat coins. In the dispute with VC cats, Pure Community Meme has achieved a phased victory.
User @free_electron 0 said: “Every time you tweet $POPCAT now you get a swarm of bots replying with the same FUD messages telling you to buy maneki or mew. Imagine being so scared of a coin that you have to use such a lazy strategy. VCs are screwed and Degens are winning again.”
Through the discussion on Twitter, it can be seen that users believe that POPCAT, MICHI, Shark Cat, etc. are considered to be community meme coins, while MEW and MANEKI are opposed by many users, who believe that they represent the participation of VCs, who hold a large number of token shares behind them. Although the current level of VC participation in meme coins is not easy to verify, it is clear that the battle for cat coins is continuing to increase the popularity of this sector and constantly affecting the rotation of their respective rankings.
As of May 7, the top three tokens with the largest market capitalization gains in the past two weeks based on trading pairs with SOL are Michi (+ 547%), SC (+ 216%), and POPCAT (+ 81%). Among the top five tokens in terms of percentage increase in wallets over the past two weeks, Michi (+ 97%) ranks first, POPCAT (+ 21%) ranks second, and SC ranks fourth (+ 7%).
Among them, MICHI has performed well, with a market value rising from $3 million to $110 million on May 8 since its deployment on April 8. As of press time, Popcat also has a staggering 45,000 token holders, and this number continues to grow.
As of the morning of May 9, the prices of cat-themed meme coins have generally rebounded. According to CoinGecko data, the top 10 cat coins by market value 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 ($34.6 million), $CWIF ($28.13 million) and PAJAMAS CAT ($21.09 million).
As of 9:00 a.m. on May 9, on the homepage of Dexscreener, many of the popular tokens within 6 hours were also cat-themed tokens or cat-related tokens, such as CATGPT, CRODIE, PUSS, CATZILLA, etc.
From IP disputes to resistance to VC coins, the narrative in the Catcoin community has clearly entered the next stage. As the Elvis Contest is in full swing, we will wait and see which targets users will choose and what exciting stories will continue to unfold.
