How crypto trader turned $960 into $337k within 2 hours

A trader on Solana (SOL) turned about $960 into $337,000 in under two hours by trading the Asteroid Shiba (ASTEROID) memecoin.

Particulars of the transaction indicate that the trader deployed 11 SOL across three wallets to buy 158.51 million ASTEROID tokens shortly after launch on Pump.fun, achieving a 351x return as the position surged.

They later sold 134.75 million tokens for 1,539 SOL, worth around $135,000, while retaining 23.76 million tokens valued at roughly $202,000, according to on-chain data retrieved from Lookonchain on April 18.

ASTEROID is a community-driven Solana memecoin inspired by a Shiba Inu (SHIB) plush named Asteroid, which flew as a zero-gravity indicator on Polaris Dawn. 

The toy was created by 15-year-old Liv Perrotto, who passed away from cancer before the mission; her story was later shared publicly by her family.

The token’s recent surge was fueled by a viral post from radio host Glenn Beck, followed by a reply from Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk that drove speculation and buying pressure.

Momentum pushed gains to extreme levels within hours, with market caps briefly exceeding $20 million on Ethereum (ETH) and reaching several million on Solana amid heavy trading. Over the past week, the memecoin has rallied about 62,000%, trading at $0.00003534 as of press time.

Additional momentum came from renewed interest in space-themed narratives, a broader memecoin rebound in April 2026, and the emotional appeal tied to pediatric cancer awareness and real-world space exploration.

ASTEROID massive profits 

On-chain data showed clustered early buys and rapid rotations typical of Pump.fun launches, while some long-dormant 2024 holders saw significant gains after holding through extended lows.

Other traders also posted major gains on ASTEROID. For instance, one address, Ily, invested about $5,920 at an average price of $0.00043 and saw unrealized profits exceed $130,000, a return of over 2,160%. 

On Ethereum, some wallets turned as little as 1 ETH into unrealized gains of $500,000 after Musk’s reply, with one early buyer realizing more than $370,000 after holding for over 580 days.

Overall, such outsized wins have become common in the Solana memecoin ecosystem on Pump.fun, where narrative-driven launches can generate extreme short-term returns, often followed by sharp reversals.