Kekius Maximus meme coins on Ethereum and Solana plummet after Elon Musk changes his profile photo and X page name

The Kekius Maximus meme coin on Ethereum and Solana crashed after Elon Musk changed his profile picture and X page name, rendering the meme irrelevant.

The Ethereum-based Kekius Maximus token launched on Dec. 14 with a market capitalization of $240 million. It was touted as a combination of crypto slang and pop culture.

“Kek” is a term used in online gaming to describe something funny or ridiculous, while “Maximus” is a reference to Maximus Decimus Meridius, the main character in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000). Musk adopted the Kekius Maximus name for his X page, referencing it in a video game-related tweet and again on New Year's Eve. The attention drove the Ethereum-based Kekius copycat tokens to soar over 30-fold, rising from $0.01 to $0.39.

However, Kekius Maximus crashed to $0.07 and a $77 million market cap after traders noticed Musk's social media changes, as reported by DEX Screener. Copycat tokens on Solana also collapsed as the hype faded. Musk later explained that the name swap was done to highlight pressing U.S. issues after a rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. https://t.co/HRjb87YbaJ

Kekius Maximus early investors

As with many meme coins, Kekius Maximus turned some early investors into millionaires—at least on paper. However, not all of the 24,000 holders realized gains before the token's price collapsed.

One buyer cashed out $2.3 million in profits, but another trader missed out on 45,906% returns. The user bought $66 worth of Kekius Maximus and booked $201,000. LookOnChain data confirmed the investor could have made $3 million instead

Turned $66 into $3.05M in just 18 days, a 45,906x return!

This trader spent 0.017 $ETH(