Popcat (POPCAT) is going through another upward leg, attempting to repeat its highs of breaking above $0.90. POPCAT is one of the top meme coins, and these rapid appreciation cycles are typical when whales roll over from other tokens. 

Popcat (POPCAT) joined the ranks of leading daily gainers, entering the list that measures the top 100 coins and tokens in that category. POPCAT’s rally mirrored the success of tokens with more liquidity and sound narratives, including AI and infrastructure assets.

After the recent near-vertical rally, POPCAT stands at $0.92, an impressive price movement that compares favorably with its best 24-hour to date. After a nearly 30% rally in the past 24 hours, POPCAT sparked talks of rallying above $1. Some predictions have POPCAT following the trajectory of DogWifHat (WIF), growing to as much as $5 given enough liquidity. 

POPCAT is a top-10 meme coin

POPCAT ranks easily among the top 10 meme coins, often rotating positions with PEPE or WIF. However, unlike older meme tokens, POPCAT only graduated to Bybit and Gate.io listings and a small market on KuCoin.

During the latest rally, POPCAT activity moved between Bybit, Gate.io, and MEXC, three exchanges that list new memes relatively quickly. POPCAT started its ascent from Raydium, the leading Solana DEX. Around 37% of the token’s volume hinges on Gate.io trades, with market-maker wallets performing high-volume transactions. 

POPCAT saw high-volume transactions between exchanges and high-traffic whale wallets. | Source: Bubblemaps

Despite relying on relatively small markets, POPCAT reported more than $168M in daily volumes, easily surpassing utility coins and tokens with more serious use cases. There are talks of a Binance listing that could tap the meme coin’s activity. However, a Binance listing may not always have a positive effect on a token’s price, as some holders use the listing to take advantage of additional liquidity and sell their positions. 

POPCAT has seen three major rallies since March 2024, each time retreating to a baseline between $0.50 and $0.60. The asset remains risky, as peaks always precede drawdowns by 30% or more. 

During the recent rally, POPCAT also made a bid to grow its valuation to $1B, with the potential to rally to become a top 5 meme token.  

POPCAT is also widely distributed to end holders, with more than 68K addresses.

One potential scenario is for POPCAT to compete with WIF. For now, it is still lagging behind WIF and BONK, which are the highest-ranked Solana meme tokens. However, the recent rally propelled POPCAT ahead of all other cat-themed tokens, including Simon’s Cat (CAT), a meme coin with a high-profile Binance trading pair. 

POPCAT may also become the first cat-themed token to break the $1B mark. Currently, the asset has the largest weight among cat-themed tokens, which, taken together, have a market cap of 1.5B. If POPCAT moves to a higher price range or gains more liquid listings, it could outweigh the rest of the cat-themed assets.

During the latest trading peak, POPCAT had around 3,998 daily active users. The token is widely distributed, though there may be connected wallets. Buyers slightly outnumber sellers, making up 50.48% of the volume.  

Whales bet on POPCAT

POPCAT performed the last few rallies with almost predictable waves of appreciation. The token has around $2.6M in liquidity on one of its strongest Orca DEX pairs, and it may be relatively easy to sway through whale activity. As of September 19, many of the transactions on Orca originated from whale wallets. 

Whale wallets originated multiple transactions through Orca, a leading exchange on Solana. | Source: Dexscreener

Some of the buyers are simply holding the tokens, refusing to sell even after the 30% rally. One of the whale wallets bought up POPCAT at $0.68 in the past few days, spending $4.13M in USDC. POPCAT is the whale’s biggest holding, with additional small-scale holdings in other meme assets. 

The two wallets now hold more than $5.4M worth of POPCAT, with no outgoing transactions noticed. The same wallets accumulated POPCAT back in April and realized some profits at the beginning of September. 

Even for whales and former earners, POPCAT may be an irrational bet with no serious plans except making the best of pumps. Whales are even making small-scale orders through Orca or other Solana-based DEX. 

POPCAT also sees almost constant MEV bot orders, aiming to snipe the price at the right moment, with no delays or canceled transactions. The heightened activity on POPCAT is tracking the price momentum, as the asset is expanding its volumes close to an all-time high.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva.