Cat Memecoin Rewards Holders With $2.8M in Zcash as ZEC Surges Past $1,200

A newly launched cat-themed token on Solana is using an unusual reward model that links its performance directly to Zcash. Anonymous Cat, or ZCAT, takes a 3% fee whenever the token is transferred and uses most of those proceeds to reward holders with ZEC.

The mechanism has produced nearly $3 million in Zcash payouts as both ZCAT and ZEC have rallied sharply.

According to the project’s dashboard, every ZCAT transfer is subject to a 3% tax. The majority of the collected fees are converted into Zcash and sent to wallets holding at least $20 worth of ZCAT.

The recent surge in ZEC has dramatically increased the value of those distributions. More than 2,320 ZEC, worth approximately $2.8 million as of Monday morning in Asia, has been paid out through over 470,000 individual distributions.

However, the rewards should not be viewed as income generated by an underlying business or investment. The ZEC comes from activity within the ZCAT market, meaning the amount distributed depends on users continuing to buy, sell and transfer the token. A decline in trading activity would therefore lead to significantly smaller rewards.

Zcash has been one of the strongest-performing major crypto assets over the past year, gaining more than 2,300%. ZEC climbed above $1,200 late Sunday as interest in privacy-focused cryptocurrencies returned.

The blockchain is designed to conceal transaction details such as the sender, recipient and amount. Its rally therefore represents a direct way for traders to position themselves for a potential revival of privacy as a major crypto market narrative.

Investors also have a more traditional way to gain exposure to Zcash. Grayscale launched a spot Zcash ETF on NYSE Arca in late August, allowing investors to gain exposure through a U.S.-listed fund without directly purchasing and storing ZEC.

ZCAT, meanwhile, trades against ZEC on StonkFun, a Solana-based launchpad that allows newly created tokens to use assets beyond SOL and stablecoins as trading pairs.

The cat token has benefited from Zcash’s rally. ZCAT was trading at roughly 13 cents on Monday, giving it a market capitalization of around $124 million and 24-hour trading volume of approximately $22 million. The token briefly climbed to nearly 19 cents over the weekend before suffering a sharp decline during early Monday trading.

Cat Memecoins Gain Momentum

Cat-themed memecoins have recently attracted significant attention despite having little connection to traditional fundamentals.

Cash Cat provides another example of how quickly meme tokens can gain traction around emerging crypto platforms. The token surged after Robinhood Chain launched in July and became popular in part because Cash Cat was an early name linked to Robinhood before the brokerage adopted its current branding.

During the token’s first week, one trader reportedly transformed an investment of about $800 into more than $1 million. At the same time, memecoin activity rapidly became one of the most popular uses of Robinhood Chain, which was originally designed primarily for tokenized stocks.

That shift has continued to accelerate. Memecoin applications now generate a substantial share of activity on Robinhood Chain, while token-launch platform Pons recently recorded more than 22,000 newly created tokens in a single day and generated millions of dollars in fees.

ZCAT therefore remains a highly speculative bet. Its rewards depend heavily on continued trading activity and the ability of the cat-themed token to maintain enough attention and liquidity among traders.

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