Errol Musk, the daddy of tech billionaire Elon Musk, is backing a brand new memecoin known as “Musk It” to boost between $150 million and $200 million for the Musk Institute—a newly established for-profit suppose tank centered on scientific analysis and innovation.
Based on a Fortune report, Errol Musk and his enterprise accomplice, Nathan Browne, are main the initiative independently of his son, Elon Musk. Nonetheless, Errol Musk acknowledges that traders might affiliate the token with the Tesla CEO due to his prominence within the tech and crypto industries.
Regardless, Errol seems unconcerned concerning the hypothesis, emphasizing his function within the Musk household’s legacy:
“I’m the pinnacle of the household. It actually began with me in our household—I’ve been ‘Musking It’ for years.”
Regardless of his long-standing engagement with the crypto business, Elon Musk has repeatedly acknowledged that neither he nor his corporations plan to situation a token.
Errol, nonetheless, says his inspiration for launching MUSKIT got here after attending a SpaceX occasion in late 2023. On the occasion, Elon reportedly credited his father for instructing him the basics of engineering.
In the meantime, public experiences recommend the father-son relationship has been strained through the years. Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Elon Musk detailed previous tensions, together with allegations of verbal abuse throughout Elon’s childhood.
Nonetheless, Errol has denied these claims, dismissing experiences that he was estranged from his youngsters or had been abusive towards Elon’s mom, Maye Musk.
Musk It
Knowledge from DEXScreener signifies that a number of memecoins utilizing the “Musk” branding have appeared throughout networks reminiscent of Solana, Base, and Ethereum.
Nonetheless, the unique Musk It token was launched in December 2024 by a Center Jap crypto agency via the Solana-based memecoin platform Pump.enjoyable.
The mission’s official X web page describes it as a “coin of revolution, progress, and breaking boundaries.”
Solscan knowledge reveals that the token has a complete provide of 1 billion, with its high 10 holders controlling 22.79% of the provision, whereas the remaining is distributed amongst different traders.
Following Errol Musk’s endorsement, Musk It surged 300%, reaching an all-time excessive of $0.3322 earlier than barely retracting to $0.03599. Buying and selling quantity additionally noticed an 8,000% enhance, surpassing $80 million throughout the reporting interval, in response to CoinMarketCap knowledge.
Neighborhood response
Musk It’s rise comes amid a rising pattern of celebrity-backed and politically linked memecoins, together with these related to US President Donald Trump.
This wave has sparked criticism from business leaders, together with billionaire investor Mark Cuban, who has known as for larger oversight of memecoins attributable to their unchecked development.
He acknowledged:
“There are 1m tokens every week as a result of there isn’t a registration. We’d like a easy registration kind that’s tailor-made in direction of meme cash. There are sufficient KYC instruments that may make it identical day approval, with a payment to cowl prices. In any other case the junk will overwhelm the restricted high quality and damage the business.”
