rewrite this title Crypto Trader Turns $2,500 Into $500K on Skyrocketing Ethereum Meme Coin – Decrypt

A meme coin trader turned 1 Ethereum (ETH) or around $2,455 into nearly $500,000 on Thursday after trading the surging Asteroid (ASTEROID) meme coin on the Ethereum network.

ASTEROID is up more than 71,000% in the last 24 hours, jumping from a market cap below $100,000 to nearly $19 million at the time of writing, according to data from DEXScreener.

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. 

Beck’s post highlighted the story of Liv Perrotto, a teenage girl who he said maintained a list of questions for Musk, but passed away from cancer in January without the chance to get them answered. 



Her final question would have asked Musk if Asteroid, the Shiba Inu mascot she created to act as the zero-g indicator for SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, could become the face of SpaceX. 

“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. 

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. 

An ASTEROID token on Solana follows closely behind, with more $37 million in volumes over the same period.