Last weekend, the City of Austin got a new attraction in the form of an Elon Musk statue. The project is named “Elon GOAT Token” (EGT) and depicts the head of Musk, Tesla CEO, on the body of a goat, which sits on top of a rocket, Fox Business reported. The name GOAT stands for “Greatest of All Time” and is frequently used in reference to athletes.
It was earlier this year when 20-year-old metal sculptor Kevin Stone was first asked to create the statue and provided a timeline of one to two years. However, the project was finished in approximately six months.
The statue essentially serves as an outrageous marketing ploy for a new cryptocurrency named after Musk called Elon GOAT and created by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.
“We built Elon Musk a $600,000 monument on the back of a semi-trailer in honor of his many accomplishments and commitment to Cryptocurrency,” the Elon GOAT Token website shares. “Since completion, $EGT has toured several states in the US and has now decided to deliver this gift to Elon at Tesla’s Giga factory in Austin!”
The monument, which weighs 12,000 pounds and is over 30 feet long, is being presented as a gift to the Tesla CEO. The rocket ship and goat were sculpted by different artists before all three parts were brought together to create the final piece.
Thus far, Musk has not given any indication of whether he will accept the present or whether he even knows the sculpture is there. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Dustin Dailey, a security officer at Tesla, informed the group dropping off the statue the company could not accept the sculpture on Musk’s behalf but would find a spot for it on their property if Musk agreed to accept it. Alec Wolvert, an Elon GOAT co-founder and chief marketing officer, said that the group was planning on camping out nearby on a piece of public property until Musk accepted the statue.
Stone told Fox Business that the Musk sculpture is meant to be attention-grabbing. “They hope that it will not only trigger media interest but establish a token that will stick around unlike other crypto tokens that have come and gone and are not here for the long haul,” he told Fox Business.
In September, the sculpture was placed in front of Tesla’s office in Palo Alto, California, for the company’s artificial intelligence conference. Ashley Sansalone, an Elon GOAT co-founder, said Tesla employees took pictures with the sculpture and he assumes that Musk, who was in attendance at the conference, according to Twitter posts he made, saw the sculpture.
The Elon GOAT Token website claimed that Musk accepting the large gift could bring the cryptocurrency company into the spotlight. It could also be beneficial for future projects and initiatives from the organization.
EGT has plans to launch its PRO’s merchant processing solutions next year, according to the website.
Musk spent $44 billion to acquire Twitter. The deal was finalized on October 27, The Dallas Express previously reported. At the time, he changed his bio on the website to say “Chief Twit.”
In addition to Tesla and Twitter, Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
