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

The current memecoin season has been producing life-changing trading opportunities for those willing to take risks. An anonymous investor bought 2.79 billion ASTEROID tokens, an Ethereum-based memecoin dubbed 'First Shiba In Space,' for $575 on April 17. The investor then sold the entire position for 503 ETH on Tuesday, valued at approximately $1.17 million, according to on-chain tracker Lookonchain, generating a 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. Perrotto's design was inspired by Elon Musk's Shiba Inu, Floki, and 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 for Musk, including one asking if Asteroid could become SpaceX's official mascot. After her death, her mother shared the list, and media personality Glenn Beck amplified it on April 16, reaching Musk, who responded with an 'ok' to making Asteroid the official SpaceX mascot. This response triggered a surge in the token's market cap, rising from around $50,000 to over $20 million within hours of Musk's reply and eventually exceeding $100 million with over $100 million in 24-hour trading volume. At its peak, the token briefly entered the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market cap and currently trades at $0.0004435 with a $186.5 million market cap and $24 million in 24-hour volume. The token has no formal endorsement from SpaceX, no licensing arrangement, and no confirmed involvement from Musk beyond his social media responses. It is traded on Uniswap against wrapped ether, with a market cap of $186.5 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $24.3 million, having climbed about 10x from the investor's entry point on April 17.