KEKIUS, an Ethereum-based token, surged to a $380M market cap on Jan. 1 before dropping to $100M after Elon Musk reverted his profile name and photo.
One fortunate memecoin merchant was able to convert $66 of Ether into as much as $3 million in just 18 days as a result of Elon Musk’s brief name change on X to “Kekius Maximus,” which is a reference to a Pepe-Gladiator meme.
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported on X that the trader acquired 10.17 million of the Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) memecoins on December 14 and sold 2.81 million of the tokens for 60.3 Ether on January 1, while still retaining the remaining tokens.
This resulted in a staggering 45,900-fold paper gain.
Kekius Maximus is a fusion of the internet phenomenon Pepe the Frog and Maximus Decimus Meridius, the protagonist of the 2000 film Gladiator, who was portrayed by Russell Crowe.
According to CoinGecko, the KEKIUS memecoin was created on Dec. 13 and had accumulated $11.4 million by Dec. 31.
It reached its peak value of $380 million on Jan. 1, as indicated by Etherscan data.
Musk also shared AI-generated images of the Pepe the Frog-inspired animation, which was prepared for battle in the renowned Colosseum in Rome.
At the time, the KEKIUS memecoin rally was further amplified by one of his posts, which garnered 48.2 million views on X.
However, Musk’s profile name and image were reverted to Elon Musk, resulting in a decline in the market capitalization to $100.5 million.
CoinGecko data indicates that over 23,600 investors continue to possess ERC-20 KEKIUS tokens, despite the price decline.
According to DEXScreener data, numerous memecoins linked to Kekius Maximus were launched on Solana at the same time but failed to garner the same level of trader interest.
On January 1, Musk’s attention was directed to a much more serious issue when one of his Tesla-manufactured Cybertrucks detonated outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, mere hours into the New Year.
In what authorities are investigating as a potential act of terror, Musk stated that the rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded due to a bomb or pyrotechnics.
