Editing Kekius Maximus

**Kekius Maximus** (ticker **KEKIUS**) is an Ethereum memecoin that surged after Elon Musk changed his X display name to "Kekius Maximus" on 31 December 2024.[^1][^2] Its market cap went from about $12.7 million to nearly $400 million within 30 hours and fell about two-thirds within an hour of Musk reverting the change.[^3]

## Lore
The token was created on 13 December 2024, according to Etherscan.[^2] It is based on a Pepe-inspired image reportedly made with Grok, the AI tool on X.[^3] The name combines "kek", internet slang for laughter, with Maximus, Russell Crowe's character in the 2000 film *Gladiator*.[^1]

Musk gave the name to his character in the game *Path of Exile 2*, posting that "Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE"; the token rose about 1,300% to a $20 million market cap.[^1][^3] On 31 December Musk adopted the name on X and replaced his profile picture with Pepe the Frog in Roman dress holding a game controller.[^1] CoinGecko showed the token up more than 1,600% that evening.[^1] It was unclear whether Musk had any involvement with the coin, and neither he nor X responded to AFP's questions.[^1]

KEKIUS reached about $380 million in market cap on 1 January 2025, per CoinGecko.[^2] After Musk restored his own name and photo, it fell 67% in an hour to about $95 million and was 83% below its peak within ten hours.[^3]

## Timeline
- 2024-12-13: token contract created on Ethereum[^2]
- 2024-12-27: market cap reaches $1.7 million[^3]
- 2024-12-31: Musk changes his X name and avatar to Kekius Maximus[^1]
- 2025-01-01: market cap peaks near $380–400 million; Musk reverts and KEKIUS falls[^2][^3]
- 2025-02-11: Musk's brief "Harry Bōlz" name change sets off a similar round of [[Solana]] copycat tokens[^4]

## Key wallets
- An unnamed early buyer bought 10.17 million KEKIUS on 14 December 2024 and sold 2.81 million for 60.3 ETH on 1 January 2025, per Lookonchain; Cointelegraph reported the position turned about $66 of ether into as much as $3 million on paper.[^2]

## Controversies
Musk's name change produced many copycat tokens, including a "Free Tommy Robinson" token that reached a $4.8 million market cap after Musk turned to British politics.[^3] The Block described his February 2025 "Harry Bōlz" change as fuelling more memecoin pump-and-dumps, and said KEKIUS had risen more than 30 times before falling over 75%.[^4]

## See also
- [[Celebrity memecoins]]
- [[YZY]]
- [[Broccoli]]
- [[Iggy Azalea]]
- [[Haliey Welch]]
- [[Daddy Tate]]
- [[Mother Iggy]]
- [[Hawk Tuah]]

## References
1. [Elon Musk's mysterious 'Kekius Maximus' username change on X sends obscure crypto soaring over 1600%](https://fortune.com/2024/12/31/why-elon-musk-x-twitter-username-change-kekius-maximus-pepe-the-frog-memecoin-surges/), Fortune, 2024-12-31
2. [Elon Musk's bizarre name change on X turns trader's $66 into $3M profit](https://cointelegraph.com/news/trader-turns-profits-3-million-musk-kekius-maximus-memecoin), Cointelegraph, 2025-01-02
3. [Dogecoin Hero Elon Musk Just Crashed Another Meme Coin—Here's How](https://decrypt.co/299337/dogecoin-hero-elon-musk-crashed-meme-coin), Decrypt, 2025-01-02
4. [Elon Musk's latest name change on X fuels more memecoin pump-and-dumps](https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2025-02-12-elon-musk-harry-bolz-memecoins-340273), The Block, 2025-02-12
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