A cat-themed memecoin on Solana has distributed nearly $3 million worth of Zcash to its holders, with the value of those rewards soaring alongside ZEC’s massive rally.
Anonymous Cat, or ZCAT, imposes a 3% fee each time the token is transferred. Most of the collected fees are converted into Zcash (ZEC) and sent to wallets holding at least $20 worth of ZCAT, according to data from the project.
The reward mechanism has become significantly more valuable as Zcash prices have climbed. The project has distributed about 2,320 ZEC, worth approximately $2.8 million as of Monday morning in Asia, through more than 470,000 payouts.
Those distributions are entirely dependent on ZCAT trading activity. The ZEC rewards do not come from a company generating revenue or an investment producing returns. Instead, they are funded by fees from users buying, selling and transferring ZCAT. If market activity slows, payouts would likely decline substantially.
Zcash has gained more than 2,300% over the past year and broke above $1,200 late Sunday as demand for privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies strengthened.
The network allows users to conceal important transaction information, including the sender, recipient and amount. That has made ZEC a direct way for traders to speculate on a potential comeback for privacy as one of crypto’s leading market narratives.
Investors looking for traditional market exposure to Zcash also have another option. Grayscale launched a spot Zcash ETF on NYSE Arca in late August, providing exposure through a U.S.-listed fund without requiring investors to purchase and hold ZEC themselves.
ZCAT trades against ZEC on StonkFun, a Solana launchpad that allows new tokens to use cryptocurrencies other than SOL or stablecoins as their trading pairs.
ZCAT has also rallied sharply. The token was trading at roughly 13 cents on Monday, giving it a market capitalization of around $124 million and about $22 million in 24-hour trading volume. It climbed close to 19 cents during the weekend before reversing lower in early Monday trading.
Cat Memecoins Ride a Broader Trend
The surge in ZCAT comes as cat-themed tokens attract renewed attention across the crypto market, despite many of these projects having little fundamental value behind them.
Cash Cat is one recent example of how quickly a meme token can gain traction around a new blockchain. The token took off after Robinhood Chain launched in July and developed a following partly because Cash Cat was an early name associated with Robinhood before the brokerage adopted its current branding.
One trader reportedly turned around $800 into more than $1 million during the token’s first week. Memecoins also quickly became a major source of activity on Robinhood Chain, even though the network was initially built around tokenized stocks.
The trend has continued to expand. Memecoin-related applications now represent a large share of activity on Robinhood Chain, while token-launch platform Pons recently recorded more than 22,000 new tokens in a single day and generated millions of dollars in fees.
For ZCAT holders, however, the reward system ultimately depends on sustained interest in the token.
Buying ZCAT therefore remains a highly speculative bet that traders will continue to support the cat-themed memecoin, keeping its trading volume and liquidity high enough to generate meaningful ZEC distributions.
