Top Crypto Gainers Today on DEXTools – CAT, POLAR, WHAT

cryptonews.com:

Blue-chip cryptocurrency markets have been chopping all over the place on Friday, amid a wave of option expiries on the final day of trade of the year for traditional asset markets (crypto markets never shut, so the final day of trade of the year will be the 31^st of December).

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped just over 1% and was last trading around $42,000 after a record more than $11 billion in options rolled off.

The expansion of the crypto derivatives market to new record heights should be viewed as a positive long-term sign for the market, given it suggests rising involvement by more sophisticated market participants (many of whom will be institutional), validating crypto as an asset class.

Ether (ETH) was last trading around $2,300, down just over 2% in the past 24 hours as per CoinMarketCap, while BNB (BNB) was down 5.5% and Solana (SOL) up just over 7%.

Traders are looking ahead to key drivers in 2024 that include potential near-term spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in the US, Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, the Bitcoin issuance rate halving, the prospect of the start of a new Fed interest rate cutting cycle, US elections and further developments in various major crypto lawsuits, including the US SEC vs Ripple and the US SEC versus Binance and Coinbase.

While trade in blue chip markets is likely to remain choppy in the next few days, the highly volatile and illiquid low cap shitcoin/meme coin market continues to see explosive exponential moves.

Here are some of the biggest gainers today on the decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol DEXTools.

After a quiet first few days following its launch last week, a shitcoin called Catcoin ($CAT) has seen a sudden 400% pump higher, as per DEXTools.

$CAT last had a market cap of just over $1.4 million amid