A $575 Investment in a Shiba-Inspired Token Skyrockets to $1.17 Million in Just 5 Days

The memecoin season continues to yield life-changing trades for adventurous investors. An anonymous wallet purchased 2.79 billion ASTEROID tokens, an Ethereum-based memecoin dubbed 'First Shiba In Space,' for $575 on April 17. The entire position was then sold for 503 ETH on Tuesday, valued at approximately $1.17 million, according to on-chain tracker Lookonchain, resulting in a staggering return of over 2,000x in just five days. ASTEROID is themed around a Shiba Inu drawing created by Liv Perrotto, a teenage cancer patient who passed away in January 2026 after battling the disease for five years. Perrotto's design was inspired by Elon Musk's own Shiba Inu, Floki, and even flew on the Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024 as the crew's zero-gravity indicator. Before her passing, Perrotto had written down eight questions she hoped to ask Musk, including whether Asteroid could become SpaceX's official mascot. After Musk responded with an 'ok' to the idea, the token's market cap surged from around $50,000 to over $20 million within hours, eventually exceeding $100 million with over $100 million in 24-hour trading volume. Although the token has no formal endorsement from SpaceX, no licensing arrangement, and no confirmed involvement from Musk beyond his social media response, it has briefly entered the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market cap. As of Wednesday, it trades at $0.0004435 with a market cap of $186.5 million and $24 million in 24-hour volume, and is available for trade on Uniswap against wrapped ether.