AUSTIN, Texas — It might appear laborious to keep away from Elon Musk today, particularly should you dwell in Central Texas close to Tesla and different corporations led by the billionaire.
And if that weren’t sufficient, self-described “huge Elon followers” are driving a big sculpture of Musk’s face — on the physique of a goat, using on a rocket — across the Austin space.
The homeowners of the sculpture run a cryptocurrency agency referred to as Elon Goat Token and say it’s meant to pay homage to Musk’s contributions to cryptocurrency. The sculpture is meant to represent that Musk is the GOAT — an acronym for Best Of All Time — which is why the billionaire’s head is on the physique of a goat.
It sits on the again of a semi-trailer and is greater than 30 toes lengthy, 20 toes tall, and Musk’s head, which is sporting a Dogecoin necklace, is about 6 toes tall. The sculpture additionally contains such options as simulated rocket hearth, smoke, lasers, and lighting.
As a approach to market and promote the cryptocurrency platform, Elon Goat Token homeowners hope to present Musk the statue in particular person.
Whereas there is not any telling if Musk will settle for the sculpture, homeowners hope to ship it on Saturday to Tesla headquarters after an organization occasion, “GOATSgiving,” a gathering for followers of Musk and cryptocurrency. Attendees are invited to affix the supply as nicely.
Musk has but to acknowledge that he’s conscious of the statue or say whether or not he will likely be in Austin that day.
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Richard Latimer, a co-founder of Elon Goat Token, mentioned the sculpture has led to a whole lot of turned heads, taking part in nicely into the advertising objective to “simply be loopy and on the market.”
“We devoted the statue to (Elon Musk) as a result of he stepped in for crypto at a superb level and blew every part up. With every part he has finished with (cryptocurrencies) Doge and Child Doge and some different cash, we determined why not do the identical factor, however actually go on the market and go above and past and to deliver one thing to him,” Latimer mentioned.
Its creators say the monument to Musk price $600,000 to construct. The undertaking was funded primarily by way of charges on cryptocurrency transactions and funding from cryptocurrency neighborhood members, the corporate’s founders mentioned.
What’s an Elon Goat Token?
Cryptocurrency is a sort of digital asset that can be utilized to make on-line funds and may come in several types, every with totally different values, from Bitcoin to Dogecoin, a sort of meme coin that has been a favourite of Musk’s.
The billionaire first gave his assist to bitcoin in 2021 when he purchased $1.5 billion value of bitcoin by way of Tesla, although the corporate offered off most of it early this yr. Musk has since been extra into Dogecoin, which relies on the Shiba Inu meme, and infrequently tweets about cryptocurrency.
How did the Elon Musk sculpture come to be?
Ashley Sansalone, one of many crypto agency’s founders, mentioned that the undertaking began after he was requested to seek the advice of on an Elon NFT undertaking, which led to the thought of constructing a bodily monument of the Elon GOAT NFT undertaking.
After consulting a designer in California, they determined it made probably the most sense to place it on a trailer. With the statue movable, Sansalone mentioned it made sense to only drive it to Musk.
Development of the sculpture began a couple of yr in the past, and earlier than it got here to Austin, it toured quite a lot of states, together with Arizona, Washington and California.
Sansalone mentioned most individuals who see the sculpture in particular person have had constructive reactions, although he acknowledged that on-line the statue has acquired some destructive feedback from individuals who, he mentioned, are “towards capitalism or Elon.”
“We began a token undertaking round it and constructed a neighborhood round it. And simply been a very enjoyable, attention-grabbing journey, to say the least,” Sansalone mentioned.
