Memecoin Kekius Maximus Fell Sharply After Elon Musk Changed His X Profile Name

The token, which saw meteoric gains following Musk's initial adoption of the name, lost over 75% of its value in just over an hour.

Elon Musk has a knack for influencing the cryptocurrency market with his tweets and social media activity. Now, his X profile name changes are also impacting memecoins.

After changing his X profile name to the memecoin-inspired alias “Kekius Maximus” on New Year’s Eve, the token, known as KEKIUS, saw meteoric gains. At the start of the new year, KEKIUS was valued at $0.012. However, Musk's adoption of the name sparked a buying frenzy among traders, pushing the token up to $0.39 by Wednesday morning—a more than 30x increase.

As the memecoin surged, so did its market capitalization, which rose from $12 million to over $380 million at its peak.

Musk's social media activity played a key role in driving attention to KEKIUS. On New Year's Eve, as he changed his X profile name, he also posted a message that said “Brothers in Arms” and included a scene from the movie “Gladiator.” The name combined “kek,” a slang term tied to internet humor, with “Maximus,” evoking the Gladiator character Maximus Decimus Meridius.

However, Musk reverted his profile back to his real name on New Year’s Day, and the memecoin's value also took a hit, plummeting to $0.077. This caused its market cap to be reduced drastically, now valued at $77 million.

Traders rushed to sell their KEKIUS holdings as the token crashed, leading to a dramatic sell-off. At the time of writing, according to CoinGecko, KEKIUS recovered slightly to trade at $0.157, still down around 50% from its peak.

Amid the chaos, one early investor who spent just $66 on KEKIUS at launch saw their holdings balloon to a paper profit of over $3 million by Wednesday. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize on the gains before the crash.

On the other hand, another trader managed to act swiftly, realizing $2.3 million in profit, as reported by analytics platform GMGN.

Despite the turbulence, the token still has over 24,000 holders, according to Etherscan data.

As Musk shifted his focus away from internet humor and back to more serious matters, his attention also moved on from KEKIUS. The incident in Las Vegas, where a rented Cybertruck containing fireworks and possibly a bomb exploded outside the Trump Hotel, became a point of interest for Musk.

While Musk is known for his lighthearted interactions on social media, especially on X, this incident seemed to have prompted a change in his priorities. As the new year begins, we can expect to see how Musk's X profile name changes and interactions will continue to influence the cryptocurrency market, particularly memecoins.