Propose an edit: Asteroid Shiba

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Title Category One sentence summary Infobox, one "key: value" per line Article body, markdown, use [[wiki links]] and end with a ## References section

**Asteroid Shiba** (ASTEROID) is a [[meme coin]] on the Ethereum blockchain named after Asteroid, a plush Shiba Inu that served as the zero gravity indicator aboard SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024. Unlike most meme coins, its source material is a genuine human interest story, and its defining pump in April 2026 was triggered by a public exchange between a grieving family and Elon Musk.

## Background

The Asteroid plush was designed by Liv Perrotto, a teenage pediatric cancer patient who modeled the toy on Musk's dog Floki. Polaris Dawn carried it to orbit as the crew's zero gravity indicator, and proceeds from replica plush sales supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. An unofficial ASTEROID token appeared on Ethereum around the mission, and The Defiant later noted wallets that had held it since September 2024 at near zero value.

## The April 2026 surge

Liv Perrotto died in January 2026, at age 15, after a five year battle with cancer. She left behind a handwritten note with eight questions for Elon Musk, which her mother Rebecca shared on X; broadcaster Glenn Beck read it on air. Musk replied within minutes, answered the questions, and on April 18, 2026 agreed to her final request: that Asteroid become the official SpaceX mascot.

The dormant token repriced violently. Coverage described gains of roughly 920 percent in a day and near 68,000 percent on the week, with the market capitalization passing 25 million dollars and volumes above 43 million dollars. CoinGecko dates the all time high to April 21, 2026, a price that valued the token near 200 million dollars at its listed supply of about 420 billion. Copycat versions appeared on Solana and BNB Chain during the frenzy.

## The unluckiest trader

The rally produced one of 2026's most shared onchain anecdotes. Lookonchain reported that a trader had spent 542 dollars on 7.43 billion ASTEROID, held for 80 days, then sold everything for 405 dollars, a 137 dollar loss, one day before the pump began. The same position was worth over 2.6 million dollars days later. At the other extreme, one buyer reportedly turned about 2,400 dollars into more than 400,000 dollars within hours of Musk's reply.

## Competing takeovers

The community project the token traded on was not a single unified effort. In April 2026 the community reported it had lost access to the original English Twitter handle Asteroidcto due to what it called the complex and intertwined permissions across multiple generations of community takeovers, could not recover the account after days of effort, had lost the project's original website to a former takeover team member who owned the domain, and could not reach a second former team member who held the email that controlled the DEX listing's ownership. In the same weeks a separate account, MascotAsteroid, was independently pushing listing updates across CoinMarketCap, Etherscan, and CoinGecko, claiming trading access via Binance's web3 wallet and a number one ranking, and on April 23, 2026 announcing it had filed real trademarks through a Wyoming registered company for Asteroid Shiba and the slogan First Shiba in Space, evidence of rival takeover factions operating in parallel rather than one coordinated team.

A Tesla owners fan account promoted the physical Asteroid Shiba plush toy alongside the token, an example of the crossover between the real Polaris Dawn merchandise and the speculative coin.

## Status

The token is a community project and news coverage did not report any affiliation with SpaceX or the Perrotto family. After the April spike it retraced most of the move but retained an unusually durable base for an event coin: as of mid August 2026 CoinGecko lists the market capitalization around 25 million dollars, with active trading on Uniswap and several centralized exchanges. It is cited alongside coins like [[Peanut the Squirrel]] as a case where a real world story, rather than [[the trenches]] themselves, set the narrative.

## References

* The Defiant, Memecoin sector shows signs of life as ASTEROID rockets past 25M: https://thedefiant.io/news/markets/memecoin-sector-shows-signs-of-life-as-asteroid-rockets-past-usd25m
* BeInCrypto, Asteroid Shiba gains 920% after Musk names SpaceX mascot, but one trader misses big: https://beincrypto.com/asteroid-shiba-musk-spacex-mascot-rally/
* Lookonchain on X, the unluckiest guy: https://x.com/lookonchain/status/2045837716991201344
* Space.com, Elon Musk's pet dog inspires young girl's design for Polaris Dawn zero g indicator: https://www.space.com/polaris-dawn-asteroid-shiba-dog-zero-g-indicator
* CoinGecko, Asteroid Shiba: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/asteroid-shiba
* WEEX News, What is Asteroid Shiba and why is it surging: https://www.weex.com/news/detail/what-is-asteroid-shiba-asteroideth-and-why-is-it-surging-600000-695818
* https://x.com/Asteroidfan/status/2047899324840063442
* https://x.com/MascotAsteroid/status/2049816947915960422
* https://x.com/MascotAsteroid/status/2048858107913363518
* https://x.com/teslaownersSV/status/2080723322489471228

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