Elon Musk’s X Name Change Triggers 500% Surge for Kekius Maximus

Tesla CEO Elon Musk changed his name on social media platform X to Kekius Maximus today, causing the similarly named meme coin KEKIUS to explode shortly after.

KEKIUS was trading at $0.08832 at press time, up 504% on the daily chart.

Musk’s Latest Antic Pushes KEKIUS

On December 31, Elon Musk changed the name of his X handle to Kekius Maximus and also changed his profile picture. His profile picture now shows Pepe, the frog, holding a joystick and playing a video game. 

“Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

Kekius Maximus is a popular internet meme that appears to combine Pepe, the frog, and the Maximus character from the movie Gladiator. Musk, who is a known aficionado of meme coins, also retweeted a post that said, “Elon Musk is now Kekius Maximus.”

It appears traders are profiting from Musk’s antics. A trader who bought KEKIUS for $1,964 two weeks ago now holds a whopping $1.535 million in his hands, according to a crypto analyst on X.

“As Elon Musk changes his name to Kekius Maximus, anon who bought $1,964 KEKIUS 15 days ago have now truned it into $1.535 million. A crazy 780X return. Bro’s now the top 1 holder (2.54%), took $535,000 profit and still counting,” the tweet said.

According to data from CoinGecko, Kekius Maximus’s 24-hour trading volume has hit $35.2 million, while its market cap has crossed $88.32 million after the price shot up. According to data from GeckoTerminal, several other coins with names or themes similar to KEKIUS are also benefitting from Musk’s latest move.

Many Kekius Maximus-themed meme coins have emerged on several chains. For instance, there is a KM meme coin on Solana.

A trader who bought the Solana-based meme coin KM for $4,360 made a staggering profit of over 17,000% as the holdings rose to $638,000. The dramatic surge in prices also prompted discussions of a meme coin season on social media.

“Maybe Meme Season is back,” one user wrote on X.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Elon Musk has changed his name on Twitter. In January 2023, Musk changed his name to Mr.Tweet. 

“Changed my name to Mr. Tweet, now Twitter won’t let me change it back,” Musk posted.

Another time, Musk changed his X handle to ‘Naughtius Maximus’ before reverting back to his original name.

Moreover, Elon Musk posted a meme depicting Doge last month. Although he directly referred to the Department of Government Efficiency, the meme asset Dogecoin also pumped briefly.