While Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has embraced Dogecoin (DOGE), his father is pushing a meme coin that trades on the family name—whether his son likes it or not.
Errol Musk has lent his backing to a Solana-based meme coin called Musk It (MUSKIT), seeking to raise between $150 million and $200 million to support a for-profit think tank, the Musk Institute.
In an interview with Fortune, Errol Musk said he is unbothered by critics who believe the meme coin is riding on his son’s fame. “I’m the head of the family,” he said. “It really started with me in our family—I’ve been ‘Musking It’ for years.”
The market has responded to Errol Musk’s involvement. Following his statements, MUSKIT is trading at $0.04, up 280%, according to CoinGecko data.
The Musk It token was originally launched by a Middle Eastern-based crypto company in December 2024, but only recently gained attention after Errol and his business partner, tech consultant Nathan Browne, decided to endorse it.
Browne stated that one of their conditions for joining the project was ensuring it “cannot be a pump and dump.”
Musk It’s financial structure remains vague, with no roadmap or tokenomics breakdown. While meme coins are prone to rapid rises and crashes, Errol Musk insists the token has a larger purpose—funding the Musk Institute, which he envisions as a hub for innovative engineering projects like flying vehicles.
While Elon Musk has dedicated decades to perfecting rocket technology, seeking to turn humanity into a multi-planetary species, Errol seems to believe rockets aren’t the final frontier.
“We need to go beyond rockets,” he told Fortune.
Elon Musk and his father
Although the Musk It project trades on his family name, Elon Musk has no involvement in the project.
His biographer Walter Isaacson once described Errol Musk as a “charismatic fantasist” whose presence “bedevils” Elon.
Their relationship has reportedly soured over the years, with Elon Musk accusing his father of being “a terrible human being” and claiming that “almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done.”
Errol Musk, however, disputes this characterization and claims that Elon recently inquired about Musk It after seeing media reports.
However, there is no confirmation from Elon Musk regarding this claim.
Elon Musk and meme coins
Elon Musk himself is no stranger to meme coins, but unlike his father, he has never launched his own token.
Instead, he has long been associated with Dogecoin (DOGE), frequently posting memes about it and even integrating DOGE payments into Tesla’s online store.
Despite his influence on meme coins—often causing Dogecoin’s price to surge—Elon has consistently refused to release a crypto bearing his name, unlike President Donald Trump and other celebrities.
Errol Musk’s meme coin launch comes amid a meme coin boom, where opportunistic traders have turned token creation into a full-time business.
On Solana’s Pump.fun platform, a single trader has launched over 17,000 tokens in just three months, earning over $840,000 by quickly minting and flipping new coins. But Pump.fun has hit choppy waters in recent days, with a class action lawsuit accusing it of operating an illegal securities exchange.
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https://decrypt.co/303818/elon-musks-father-promotes-musk-it-solana-meme-coin
2025-01-31 13:04:27
