Key Points
The meme coin Kekius Maximus, which operates on Ethereum (ETH), saw a significant drop in value after Elon Musk changed his X account’s name and avatar.
This led to the coin’s market cap falling from $380 million on January 2.
The Rise and Fall of Kekius Maximus
The Kekius Maximus token, which is based on Ethereum, was launched on December 14.
It was designed as a fun blend of cryptocurrency terminology and popular culture.
The term “Kek” is a crypto term for something humorous or absurd, while “Maximus” is a nod to Maximus Decimus Meridius, the protagonist in the film Gladiator (2000) directed by Ridley Scott.
Musk briefly used the Kekius Maximus name for his X page.
He mentioned it in a tweet related to video games and again on New Year’s Eve.
This publicity caused the price of the Ethereum-based Kekius Maximus token to skyrocket over 30 times, from $0.01 to $0.39.
However, the price of Kekius Maximus quickly fell to $0.07 with a market cap of $77 million.
This happened shortly after traders noticed Musk’s changes to his social media.
According to DEX Screener, copycat tokens on Solana (SOL) also experienced a drop as the hype subsided.
Musk stated that he changed the name to focus on urgent issues in the U.S., following an explosion of a rented Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
Like many meme coins, Kekius Maximus made some early investors into millionaires, at least on paper.
However, not all of the 24,000 holders managed to cash in before the token’s price plummeted.
One investor managed to cash out with $2.3 million in profits.
But another trader missed out on a 45,906% return.
This trader bought $66 worth of Kekius Maximus and cashed out $201,000.
According to LookOnChain data, the investor could have made $3 million instead.