The token, which is based on a Shiba Inu mascot named Asteroid, skyrocketed early on Friday following a social media post from media personality Glenn Beck, which earned a reply from X owner and SpaceX and Tesla founder, Elon Musk.
“Will answer shortly,” Musk said in reply to Beck’s post around 11:50 p.m. ET on Thursday. That post has now garnered more than 1.3 million views on X.
Eight minutes later, an Ethereum address ending with “EF99af” bought 1 ETH worth of ASTEROID tokens, first launched 19 month ago on Ethereum. The buy was good enough for more than 10 billion ASTEROID tokens.
As renewed attention bloomed around Perrotto and Asteroid with Musk’s reply, a massive surge in the meme coin ensued, quickly making the trader’s portfolio worth nearly $500,000.
THIS GUY TURNED 1 ETH INTO HALF A MILLION IN 3 HOURS
The first person to buy ASTEROID today only made $1,300, after selling for about 2x.
At this time, “EF99af” is the top trader on the token according to DEXScreener’s top traders tab, locking in more than $242,000 in profits with sales while maintaining a stash of just around $180,000 worth of ASTEROID tokens.
Two other traders, “6E5Eae” and “9dE8db” both purchased less than $10,000 worth of ASTEROID tokens, and have similarly locked in more than $150,000 in gains via sales.
The token has generated more than $43 million in 24-hour trading volume, making it the second most-traded meme coin across blockchains in the last 24 hours per DEXScreener.
