For almost 30 years, cave bears and paleogenetic research have shared a mutually beneficial relationship. Due to the abundance and frequently good preservation of cave bear bones, they have often been the tissue of choice to develop and test molecular approaches aimed at recovering and sequencing DNA from ancient remains. Our understanding of cave bear biology has similarly profited from the molecular data produced through paleogenetic studies. DNA data has complemented morphological data to provide insights into the evolution and phylogeny of cave bears. Molecular population dynamic studies have helped develop hypotheses explaining the extinction of cave bears, and new genomic data is now promising to shed light on evolutionary and population genetic processes that could previously only be obtained from living species. Here we evaluate and review the role cave bears have played in the development of paleogenetic research as well as the role that paleogenetic research has had in understanding cave bear biology. We provide a perspective on where this mutually beneficial relationship is likely to take us in the near future.