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CAT, the licensed memecoin of the internet cartoon character Simon’s Cat, is expanding to the Solana blockchain to capture newer trading audiences.
Long-term holders of Solana stalwart BONK, a dog-themed memecoin created in late 2022, who locked their tokens for 12 months would get early access to CAT on Solana. A vault will offer up to $100,000 worth of CAT at a discounted rate compared to the market price at launch.
The vault has been filled in excess of an initial $100,000 target as of Asian morning hours, with $240,000 worth of stablecoins deposited for CAT on Solana, data shows.
Solana has emerged as a memecoin hotbed in the past years, often seeing frenzied periods of token issuances and trading, that create a loop of demand for SOL — with those gains often trickling back into newer tokens.
Other networks have yet to see similar activity take off. Earlier this year, in March, for example, Solana amassed $3.2 million in fees over 24 hours, beating a $300,000 record from 2021. Onchain volumes climbed over $3 billion, flipping a November 2022 record of $300 million, as a CoinDesk analysis showed. No other popular blockchain, such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, or Tron, saw a bump in activity during that period, indicating that traders’ attention was focused on a single network.
That reason primarily drives CAT’s decision to expand to Solana.
“BNB has given $CAT a strong, reliable foundation with solid liquidity, but we’re excited to open the doors to Solana’s high-speed, low-cost network, which is hugely popular among retail traders and the memecoin crowd,” a Simon’s Cat core team member told CoinDesk under anonymity.
“Solana’s deep support from exchanges means even more opportunities for trading and liquidity, which is a major boost. And we’re just getting started—there’s plenty more on our roadmap,” the team added in a Telegram message.
The Simon’s Cat token was created in early August with Floki, BNB Chain, and DWF Labs. CAT is officially linked to the mainstream Simon’s Cat brand and is the first major cat memecoin on the BNB Chain, backed by the company’s IP, which earned $5.8 billion in revenue last year.
CAT is up 11% in the past 24 hours and has nearly doubled in the past two weeks alongside a broader memecoin rally, data shows.
Edited by Parikshit Mishra.
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Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.