Dogelon Mars (ELON): An Elon Musk-Inspired Memecoin

Overview: What Is Dogelon Mars?

Dogelon Mars was one of several dog-themed memecoin projects to arise in 2021 following the rapid ascent of projects like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). While the Dogelon Mars crypto project launched with a native token, ELON, the asset did not boast any specific use case or application to support the launch. Instead, Dogelon developers hoped to create a user-friendly, community-based crypto asset similar to DOGE and other leading memecoin projects.

There are many Dogecoin-inspired projects within the crypto space, but a main way Dogelon Mars seeks to set itself apart from the pack is by specifically and directly appealing to Elon Musk – the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Elon Musk has a reputation for engaging with the crypto Twittersphere in an unconventional and impactful manner, and the Dogelon Mars community is unified in calling on Musk to support the project.

As of January 2022, over 100,000 crypto addresses hold ELON tokens, and Dogelon Mars currently has over 320,000 Twitter followers and 85,000 Telegram community members. Dogelon’s community has earned a reputation for supporting crypto traders who have been scammed, and ELON crypto holders often send airdrops to rugpull victims in an effort to build good will and grow the Dogelon community. As a result, Dogelon Mars has earned some respect within the broader crypto space, although it remains to be seen whether the project will succeed in the long run.

“Plans” for ELON: Crypto for Intergalactic Colonization?

The stated purpose of ELON token is to serve as an “intergalactic currency” that future space colonizers can use on Mars and beyond. However, the project team has not released a whitepaper or detailed roadmap outlining their development plans. Dogelon’s official website and Medium posts largely consist of fictional backstories involving multi-planetary colonization, written from the perspective of a galaxy-brained canine humanoid that loosely resembles Elon Musk.

According to official Dogelon Mars lore, in the year 2420 Mars will be re-colonized by Dogelon Mars, at which point the project’s most important plans will be revealed. The project’s storyline also encourages the ELON crypto community to advocate for ELON token listings on major exchanges and remain fearless when confronted with crypto market volatility.

Dogelon Mars’ developers have also announced the upcoming release of a new staking feature that lets users stake their ELON tokens and earn a new token called xELON, which is being touted as a multifunctional token that will provide exciting new incentives for the Dogelon Mars decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. However, it remains unclear whether xELON is designed to enable decentralized governance or be used as a digital currency.

Aside from Dogelon Mars’ vague plans for multi-planetary expansion, the project has also begun publishing a Dogelon-themed comic series on its website. An October 2020 Medium post published by the Dogelon team also hinted at an upcoming non-fungible token (NFT) launch and plans to launch a new token within the Dogelon Mars cryptoverse that will “aid Dogelon Mars on his journey back to Mars.”

ELON Token: Dogelon Mars Tokenomics

Like Bitcoin’s and Shiba Inu’s, Dogelon Mars’ founders remain anonymous to this day. The project website claims that Dogelon Mars is a fork of Dogecoin, but there is little evidence to support this claim – especially since the total ELON token supply far exceeds DOGE’s.

What we do know is that Dogelon Mars is built on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning ELON is an ERC-20 token that can be easily tracked on any Ethereum block explorer. Based on ELON’s on-chain history, it’s clear that the Dogelon Mars crypto team did not conduct a token pre-sale, nor give project insiders early access to ELON tokens before its public debut. Instead, half of ELON’s total token supply was permanently locked up in a Uniswap liquidity protocol upon launch, and the remaining half was sent to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum. This move mirrored a strategy previously deployed by Shiba Inu, with the intent to reduce the project’s circulating supply and draw attention to its projects.

Vitalik ultimately decided to donate most of his SHIB tokens to a COVID-19 relief charity in India and other non-profits, and similarly gifted his ELON tokens to multiple charities. The largest recipient of Vitalik’s ELON crypto donations was an organization called the Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit focused on ethical life extension and regenerative medical therapies. Vitalik gifted nearly half his ELON tokens (worth roughly $336 million USD at the time) to the Methuselah Foundation. Following this donation, the Foundation issued a press release promising to be responsible stewards of their ELON tokens. More specifically, the press release announced that the Foundation would hold their ELON tokens for at least a year, and that any future token sales would help preserve ELON’s value while advancing the Foundation’s humanitarian goals. This announcement generated significant enthusiasm across the greater crypto community.