The invention discloses a cracking catalyst capable of increasing the octane number of catalytic cracking gasoline. The cracking catalyst is characterized by comprising, by dry weight, taking the catalyst as 100%: 10-50% of rare-earth ultrastable Y-type molecular sieves, 20-50% of clay, 5-35% of a binder, 0-10% of shape-selective molecular sieves with an MFI structure, and 0-20% of REY and/or other REUSY molecular sieves. The content of rare earth in the catalyst is 1.0-4.0% by weight. The rare-earth ultrastable Y-type molecular sieves are obtained by the steps that: a fresh NaY molecular sieve crystallization slurry is subjected to filtration and separation, and a molecular sieve filter cake is washed with lye; the molecular sieve filter cake is subjected to beating; and through ion exchange of rare earth and ion exchange of ammonium salts, the rare-earth ultrastable Y-type molecular sieves are obtained. The catalyst is capable of significantly increasing the octane number of gasoline, and has good coke selectivity and excellent heavy oil conversion capability.