coindesk.com
Cat-themed token $POPCAT and dog-themed $WIF jumped 25%, while smaller tokens MUMU and CATDOG were up 30%.
The surge in Solana-based tokens contrasted with declines in major memecoins on other blockchains.
Memecoins on the Solana ecosystem surged more than 30% in the past 24 hours, leading gains in the crypto market, as the network’s underlying token $SOL, recovered from losses from earlier in the week.
Cat-themed popcat ($POPCAT) and dog token dogwifhat ($WIF) surged as much as 25%, before slightly retreating, while smaller tokens MUMU and catdog (CATDOG) rose 30%, data show. Major memecoins on other blockchains, such as dogecoin (DOGE) and pepe (PEPE), lost as much as 5%, showing a preference for Solana-based tokens.
Solana network volumes more than doubled to over $3.3 billion from Monday’s $1.5 billion, banking in fees of at least $750,000 per day, DefiLlama data shows. Fees generated by Pump, a popular platform used to issue new memecoins on Solana, increased to $535,000 in the past 24 hours compared to under $300,000 on Monday – indicative of higher risk-on activity among traders.
The ecosystem activity came as $SOL rose 7.5%, trading over $150 in European morning hours on Wednesday to beat the broad-based CoinDesk 20’s 2.23% rise. It fell from $145 to as low as $112 on Monday amid a broader market rout but has since led gains among major tokens.
Optimism around the ecosystem comes ahead of a widely expected $SOL exchange-traded fund (ETF), which could be the third spot token offered to professional U.S.-based investors behind bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).
“The possibility of an $SOL ETF shows promising signs to investors on $SOL’s mainstream adoption,” Lucy Hu, senior analyst at Metalpha, told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. “The quick rebound of $SOL indicates renewed confidence in the broader crypto space as the market becomes more stabilized,”
“$SOL has shown to be robust with innovations, and meme coins have been rising in popularity,” Hu added.
In early July, the CBOE submitted 19b-4 filings with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) asking to list VanEck's and 21Shares' potential spot Solana ETFs, which were initially filed in late June.