Pepe-themed meme coins PEPE and KEKIUS posted notable gains after tech mogul Elon Musk renamed his X account.

Shares of Ethereum-based KEKIUS have soared more than 2,600%, reaching an all-time high of $0.301 at the time of writing, while its market capitalization has risen from $12.8 million to more than $265 million. Meanwhile baby (baby) It embarked on a parabolic marchup nearly 20% to pare some of last week's losses.

The recent hype has also spurred the creation of several similar memes on token publishers such as Solana-based Pump.fun and Tron's SunPump, which carry tickers such as KM, KEKIUS, and MAXIMUS.

What happened?

On the last day of 2024, Musk surprised his 210 million X followers, especially meme fans, by changing his display name to “Kekius Maximus” and updating his avatar to an image of popular meme character Pepe the Frog wearing golden gladiator armor. He holds a video game controller.

The new profile picture appears to be inspired by Maximus Decimus Meridius, a popular movie character played by Russell Crowe in the 2000 film “Gladiator,” as well as Pepe the Frog, an internet meme and reference to the gaming community.

While Musk didn't offer an official explanation for the rebranding, before making the changes, the Tesla CEO did drop a vague hint on Tuesday mailSaying: “Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE.”

The tweet refers to the online game Path of Exile (a video game Musk is famous for playing), where reaching level 80 represents a milestone in the game's progression system.

Elon Musk's attraction to Pepe-themed photos is well documented, with previous instances of it sharing Pepe on X memes elicit similar reactions in the market. Most recently, on December 10, Musk said Retweeted Image of “Kekius Maximus” created by Grok, which led to a short rally in PEPE.

Exaggerated rallies fail to last

However, cryptocurrency traders should tread carefully, as rallies are often driven by celebrity hype It didn't last longIt is a pattern seen repeatedly in the cryptocurrency space.

For example, Elon Musk's tweets about Dogecoin (Doug) in late 2020 sparked a massive rally, pushing DOGE to an all-time high of $0.7376 by May 2021, with its market capitalization surpassing $47 billion. However, the excitement eventually faded, and Dogecoin's price fell, closing the year at just $0.1708.

Likewise, the meme currency based on Solana “Water” (water) by 400% after soccer star Lionel Messi Promoted He posted on Instagram, wiping out almost all of the gains soon after.

As of press time, PEPE is down 9% from its intraday high of $0.000021 as PEPE holders take profits. Meanwhile, KEKIUS fell 6% from its all-time high of $0.301 and traded at $0.286.