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Goat statue with massive Elon Musk head delivered to Tesla’s Texas headquarters. Why?

A statue of a goat with Elon Musk’s head riding a rocket was delivered to Tesla’s Austin headquarters in a “Goatsgiving” cryptocurrency stunt.
A statue of a goat with Elon Musk’s head riding a rocket was delivered to Tesla’s Austin headquarters in a “Goatsgiving” cryptocurrency stunt. Screengrab from video posted to @RickyG_TV's Twitter

A massive silver statue of a goat with Elon Musk’s head was delivered to a Tesla factory in Texas this week. The delivery — and the statue itself — poses the question: Who would create such a thing? And why?

The statue, named the Elon GOAT Monument, was created by $EGT, a cryptocurrency token named after Elon Musk, a billionaire businessman known for his involvement in Tesla, SpaceX and, most recently, Twitter, according to the token’s website. The founders of $EGT admired Musk whom they refer to as the GOAT, meaning the Greatest Of All Time.

The relatively unknown cryptocurrency channeled its admiration of Musk — and $600,000 — into the Elon GOAT Monument, a “biblical sized gift” to Musk, the company said.

The silvery statue has a goat’s body made of thin metallic sheets that light up at night, a video posted by RickyG_TV on Twitter shows. The goat’s body is topped with a large, life-like head of Musk and rides a SpaceX-style rocket pointed toward the sky. The statue wears a necklace with the symbol of dogecoin, another cryptocurrency.

The statue’s head is 6 feet tall, and the goat’s body is 30-feet-long, the website says. The rocket has gas lines inside enabling it to shoot flames out the end, The Wall Street Journal reported. The entire statue weighs 12,000 pounds.

$EGT delivered the statue to Tesla’s Austin headquarters on Saturday, Nov. 26, to give it to Musk, calling the event “Goatsgiving,” the company said on its website. The cryptocurrency hoped Musk would accept the gift and give attention to its token, thereby validating it and boosting its popularity — essentially, an elaborate cryptocurrency marketing stunt.

Musk, however, has not responded to the gift, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Tesla did not respond to McClatchy News’ questions about whether the company — or Elon Musk — would keep the statue.

The co-founder and chief marketing officer of $EGT, Alec Wolvert, told The Wall Street Journal that he would continue trying to give the statue to Musk. “We’re gonna stay here as long as possible,” Wolvert said. “I even heard some people say they were going to strap themselves to it.”

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This story was originally published November 29, 2022 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Goat statue with massive Elon Musk head delivered to Tesla’s Texas headquarters. Why?."

Aspen Pflughoeft
McClatchy DC
Aspen Pflughoeft covers real-time news for McClatchy. She is a graduate of Minerva University where she studied communications, history, and international politics. Previously, she reported for Deseret News.
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