'Musk effect' sees crypto named after SpaceX's Starlink satellites gain over 140% in three days

Published at: Nov. 15, 2021

In a bizarre event, a cryptocurrency with the same name as SpaceX's satellite range "Starlink" jumped over 140% as Elon Musk's space technology company launched 53 of them into the Earth's lower orbit.

Watch Falcon 9 launch 53 Starlink satellites to orbit → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK https://t.co/dgHuF6SIZ4

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2021

Written as StarLink (STARL), the little-known crypto rallied 13.70% on Nov. 13 — the day of the satellite launch, another 69% a day after it, and by up to 27% on Nov. 15. The massive upside move brought STARL's net returns on investment by a little over 140% in just less than three days, data from the OKEx exchange shows.

STARL comes under the 'Musk Effect'

The name alone acted as a common denominator between StarLink the crypto and Starlink the SpaceX's satellite wing. As a result, it appeared that traders merely pumped the crypto through coordinated efforts while attempting to cash on SpaceX's satellite launch event.

Some of the reasons include Elon Musk's influence on the crypto market as well as the rise of meme-tokens and "meme-stock" investing phenomenon as a whole.

It started with the billionaire investors tweeting in favor of Dogecoin (DOGE), a meme cryptocurrency, that pushed its per token price to a record high of $0.76 in May 2021 following a 15,700%-plus year-to-date (YTD) rally.

Musk's decision to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) via his other company, Tesla, also led the flagship cryptocurrency up from around $39,000 in February 2021 to almost $65,000 in April 2021.

Meanwhile, his criticism of Bitcoin over its alarming carbon emissions was considered instrumental by many market analysts behind the notorious May 2021 crypto crash.

Additionally, Musk's cryptic tweeting about his pet dog, a Japanese breed called Shiba Inu, helped fuel the price rally of its namesake token. Trading under the ticker SHIB, the cryptocurrency's year-to-date returns by the end of October came out to be around 375%.

Most recently, another cryptocurrency named after Musk, namely Dogelon Mars, surged by more than 4,200% in October, underscoring how the "Musk effect" influenced crypto markets.

However, per its whitepaper, StarLink operates as a standalone crypto project, with no connection to its namesake satellites.

It presents itself as a "decentralized metaverse project" with STARL acting as its official default currency, helping users to purchase everything from services like gaming to virtual real estate.

What's next for StarLink the crypto

The latest bout of STARL buying has pushed its price higher but has failed to generate adequate price momentum.

As shown in the chart below, the STARL price has been forming higher highs through the ides of November, but its relative strength index (RSI) has been sloping downward, painting lower highs instead. That signals a classic bearish divergence due to a lack of follow-through upside momentum.

As a result, STARL may undergo a price correction in the coming sessions as its ongoing parabolic support attempts to keep it from testing $0.00064 as an interim downside target.

Nevertheless, holding above the said price floor could have STARL bulls retest the token's record high near $0.00087.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.