Headline: $575 into a Shiba memecoin turns into $1.17M in five days as “Asteroid” rocket-fuels into the top ranks
A tiny, anonymous bet on a Shiba-themed memecoin mushroomed into a seven-figure windfall this week — a perfect example of how memecoin mania can mint life-changing gains (and catastrophic losses) in a matter of days.
What happened
- On April 17 an anonymous wallet bought 2.79 billion ASTEROID tokens for $575, on-chain tracker Lookonchain reports. Five days later the wallet sold the entire position for 503 ETH — roughly $1.17 million — a return of more than 2,000x.
- The trade was settled on Uniswap, where ASTEROID trades against wrapped Ether (WETH).
Why ASTEROID exploded
- ASTEROID bills itself as the “First Shiba In Space” and borrows its imagery from a drawing by Liv Perrotto, a teenage volunteer on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn ground support team who died in January 2026 after a five-year battle with cancer.
- Perrotto’s Shiba design, inspired by Elon Musk’s dog Floki, flew on the Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024 as a zero-gravity indicator. Before she died she wrote eight questions she hoped to ask Musk, the last asking if Asteroid could become SpaceX’s official mascot.
- After Perrotto’s mother shared the list publicly, media personality Glenn Beck amplified it on April 16. The post went viral, reportedly reached Musk, and he replied “ok” — a social-media cue that sent traders piling into the token.
Market impact and metrics
- Following Musk’s reply, ASTEROID’s market cap rocketed from roughly $50,000 to over $20 million within hours, then surged past $100 million in the following days amid more than $100 million in 24-hour trading volume.
- At one point the token briefly entered the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
- As of European morning hours on Wednesday, DEX Screener shows ASTEROID trading at $0.0004435 with a market cap near $186.5 million and about $24 million in 24-hour volume. Price moves reported: +20.69% in 24 hours, +28.54% in six hours, and roughly 10x above the wallet’s April 17 entry price.
A warning on endorsements
- Important caveats: ASTEROID has no formal SpaceX endorsement, no licensing agreement, and no confirmed business involvement from Musk beyond the public social-media replies that helped spark the run.
Takeaway
This episode underlines why memecoin “seasons” attract speculative capital: social-media moments can trigger massive, fast-moving price action. The upside can be massive — as in this roughly $575 stake turned into a seven-figure exit — but so can the downside. Traders should be aware of extreme volatility, limited fundamentals, and the absence of official endorsements even when celebrity figures engage online.
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