Pepe-themed meme coins PEPE and KEKIUS posted notable gains after tech mogul Elon Musk rebranded his X account.
Ethereum-based KEKIUS rallied over 2,600%, hitting an all-time high of $0.301 at the time of writing, while its market cap rose from $12.8 million to over $265 million. Meanwhile, Pepe (PEPE) embarked on a parabolic rally, rising roughly 20% to minimize some of the past week’s losses.
The recent hype has also spurred the creation of several similar meme coins on token deployers like Solana-based Pump.fun and Tron’s SunPump, bearing tickers such as KM, KEKIUS, and MAXIMUS.
What happened?
On the last day of 2024, Musk surprised his 210 million X followers, particularly meme coin enthusiasts, by changing his display name to ‘Kekius Maximus’ and updating his avatar to an image of the popular meme character Pepe the Frog dressed in golden gladiator armor and holding a video game controller.
The new profile picture seems to draw inspiration from Maximus Decimus Meridius, a popular character in cinema played by Russell Crowe in the 2000 movie ‘Gladiator,’ as well as Pepe the Frog, an online meme and a nod to the gaming community.
While Musk has not provided an official explanation for the rebranding, before making the changes, the Tesla CEO dropped an enigmatic hint in a Tuesday X post, stating, “Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE.”
The tweet references the online game Path of Exile (a video game that Musk is recognized for playing), where reaching level 80 marks a significant milestone in the game’s progression system.
Elon Musk’s affinity for Pepe-themed imagery is well-documented, with previous instances of him sharing Pepe memes on X sparking similar market reactions. More recently, on Dec. 10, Musk retweeted an image of ‘Kekius Maximus’ created by Grok, which led to a short rally for PEPE.
Over-hyped rallies fail to sustain
However, meme coin traders should tread carefully, as rallies driven by celebrity hype are often short-lived, a pattern repeatedly seen in the crypto space.
For instance, Elon Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin (DOGE) in late 2020 sparked a massive rally, pushing DOGE to an all-time high of $0.7376 by May 2021, with its market cap exceeding $47 billion. However, the excitement eventually faded, and Dogecoin’s price plummeted, closing the year at just $0.1708.
Similarly, the Solana-based meme coin Water (WATER) shot up 400% after soccer star Lionel Messi promoted it on Instagram, only to erase almost all of the gains shortly after.
As of press time, PEPE was down 9% from its intra-day high of $0.000021 as PEPE holders booked profits. Meanwhile, KEKIUS has pulled back 6% from its all-time high of $0.301 and was exchanging hands at $0.286.
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