Contract: 0xfa89ed9d12bf74add8253ddfaa426c4d8a0fa603
Overview
Shivolink ($SLINK) is a Robinhood Chain token launched on 5 September 2026 after a contract address was published from the verified account of Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink executive and long-time associate of Elon Musk. The token ran from a standing start to an all-time high market capitalisation of approximately $70M before collapsing.
Origin
In the hours before the launch, the Shivon Zilis account posted repeatedly about a neural-interface research initiative presented under the name Shivolink, describing it as a cohort experiment speaking through one public channel. The posts stated that creator fees generated on Robinhood Chain would be directed towards funding the research, and framed the project as an attempt to make neural-interface work more publicly legible.
Skepticism and the Account Compromise
The launch was met with immediate skepticism. Observers noted that a sitting Neuralink executive publishing a contract address was inconsistent with prior behaviour, and questioned whether the account remained under its owner's control. It was subsequently established that the account had been compromised during the period in which the Shivolink posts were published. Automated verification attempts, including Grok, did not identify the compromise at the time. The Neuralink-focused account Neura Pod publicly warned that the post was "very likely compromised" and advised followers to verify carefully before sending funds anywhere.
The Elon Musk Reply
The episode escalated when the verified Elon Musk account replied to the Shivolink thread with a single "100" emoji at 12:29 AM on 5 September 2026, an interaction that accumulated approximately 174.1K views. It has not been established whether the reply reflected an awareness of the situation, an unrelated endorsement of the stated research framing, or a further compromised account. No clarification was issued.
Market Activity
The token traded flat at a low valuation until the Musk reply, at which point volume expanded violently and the market capitalisation peaked at approximately $2.2M before a sustained decline across subsequent sessions.
Community Reaction
The commentator Frank (@frankdegods) published a top-trader table from the token and captioned it "iq test", noting that the leading wallets had accumulated below a $10K market capitalisation and realised substantial profits into the reply-driven expansion. The framing was widely repeated as shorthand for the view that the run rewarded participants who acted on the account activity before the compromise was understood.
Timeline as Recorded by Participants
The trader Rune (@RuneCrypto_) published a widely circulated account of the sequence: the Shivon Zilis account posted support for $SLINK; the post appeared hacked and the researcher Ryan Tanaka confirmed as much; Elon Musk then replied to the post and the token moved from effectively zero to approximately $20M; Tanaka subsequently retracted, stating the account was not hacked, and the token advanced from approximately $20M to approximately $70M; belief in the project's legitimacy then failed and the token fell from approximately $70M to approximately $10M, with roughly $750,000 in creator fees accrued to the deployer. Rune disclosed a position of 4.4M SLINK carrying an unrealised loss of approximately $119,650, and stated he would take the same risk again.
