Elon Musk has triggered a meme coin outburst after changing his X profile name to “Kekius Maximus,” triggering a 120% rally in the frog-themed token.
Created by Musk’s followers last year in response to his initial profile name change, the Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) token surged to $0.055 in the past 24 hours, up from an average of $0.025.
According to CoinMarketCap, KEKIUS’s trading volume spiked 285% to over $32.6 million during the same period. While not considered among the top meme coins to watch this May, the sudden spike has temporarily pushed KEKIUS into the spotlight.
Musk has a track record of influencing digital tokens through his social media posts, which date back to his early support of Dogecoin. When he acquired X (formerly Twitter) in 2021, he briefly replaced the platform’s icon with Dogecoin’s logo, causing a notable price bump. While Dogecoin and Shiba Inu remain Musk’s most widely associated tokens, his uptake of Kekius Maximus marked a new meme trend based on frog culture.
The revival of KEKIUS comes as part of a broader wave of activity in meme markets. Shiba Inu has increased by 1.09% to $0.00001477 and the market cap for meme coins in general is up by 1.06% to about $69 billion.
Musk’s meme power wanes as GORK stalls below $100M
Musk’s endorsements have historically sent tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE) soaring, but his recent “Gorklon Rust” stunt shows a noticeable decline in influence. Musk switched his profile name to “Gorklon Rust” on X and changed his profile picture to one with a GORK theme on May 4, which led to a surge in the Solana-based GORK meme coin. But the coin did not break the $100 million market cap barrier.
“Pretty wild how not even Elon Musk making his pfp has an effect anymore. GORK soared from a market cap of $45 million to $75 million and since has slid back to approximately $65 million,” one analyst noted. Many community members shared that sentiment, suggesting that Musk’s power to move the markets might be waning.
The analyst noted the state of alt liquidity, emphasizing that even with 200 million followers, Musk’s promotion of a meme coin barely pushed it past $50 million in market cap.
This trend isn’t isolated. In February 2025, Musk’s brief rebrand to “Harry Bōlz” led to the creation of the HARRYBOLZ token, which only managed to hit a $9.5 million market cap. Similarly, in December 2024, when he changed his X username to “Kekius Maximus,” the KEKIUS token peaked at just over $88 million.
Not even after Musk tweeted a “Dogefather” meme that led to a flood of posts to token sale sites and the creation of tens of similar-named tokens, did a single one come close to surpassing the $100 million threshold.
This stands in stark contrast to his former sway. In 2020–2021, Musk’s repeated endorsements of DOGE led to huge rallies that swelled to tens of millions and billions in value. At the time, other meme coins rallied on Musk’s endorsements, but today, the returns are much more subdued.
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