Meme Coins Dive as Musk Abandons “Kekius Maximus” Handle

American billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reverted to his original name on the social media platform X after briefly changing it to “Kekius Maximus” on December 31. 

This name change to Kekius Maximus sparked an immediate surge in the value of similarly themed meme coins. However, it seems these meme coins are now retracing as Musk switches his X-handle name once again.

Musk’s Name Change Sends Meme Coins Soaring—And Then Falling!

The Kekius Maximus coin was down nearly 50% over the past 24 hours after Musk changed his name on X. The meme coin was trading at $0.09217 at press time. Nevertheless, KEKIUS was still up over 6,000% on the 7-day chart, and its market cap was $92 million.

Few traders who invested in Kekius Maximus after it gained overnight popularity are now reeling in losses.

“rektdolphin.eth exchanged all 62 billion PEPE( ~ $1.2 million) for 4.23 million KEKIUS 12 hours ago (Now worth $290,000). That’s why you shouldn’t FOMO into hype. $1 million gone in 12 hours,” an analyst said on Twitter.

Another analyst added that the ‘reign’ of Kekius Maximus has come to an end.

“JUST IN: The reign of Kekius Maximus has come to an end. For now. Elon Musk has returned to X.”

The move impacted other frog-themed memecoins as most of them have started retracing the gains from December 31.

Earlier on December 31, Kekius Maximus and other frog-themed meme coins exploded after Musk changed his name on X. According to CoinGecko, the market cap of frog-themed coins even rose to $11.8 billion.

Kekius Maximus is a popular internet meme that combines 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.”

Musk also changed his profile picture on X to Pepe, the frog, holding a joystick and playing a video game. 

The Tesla CEO has changed his name on Twitter multiple times. In January 2023, he changed his name to Mr.Tweet. Another time, he changed his X handle to ‘Naughtius Maximus.’

Moreover, it is not the first time that the billionaire entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX has influenced the crypto market. Musk is a vocal supporter of the dog-themed Dogecoin and has boosted its price several times through his tweets. 

In 2021, Dogecoin surged after Musk said it is the people’s crypto.

More recently, in November, Elon Musk posted a meme depicting Doge. Although he directly referred to the Department of Government Efficiency, the meme coin Dogecoin also briefly pumped.