Elon Musk's return to ‘Kekius Maximus' avatar pushes meme coin's price by over 200%: What does it mean?
The Kekius Maximus's rate was 145 percent higher as of 8:45 am on Saturday (IST), as per projections seen on CoinMarketCap.com. The rates increased by over 273 percent around 9:15 am. Credit: CoinMarketCap.com
This happened after Elon Musk changed his name on X, yet again, to old moniker "Kekius Maximus" on Friday, May 17, 2025 — indirectly promoting Ethereum (ETH)-based memecoin KEKIUS.
Musk changed his profile picture too. It showed him in an armour, with "Emperor Kekius Maximus" written on the picture.
The last time Musk had changed his name on the social media platform was in December last year. He had then revamped his persona, replacing his profile picture with an imaginative version of the 'Pepe the Frog' meme. It featured Pepe dressed as a warrior, complete with armour, wielding a joystick for a video game.
Shortly after Musk's name change last December, memecoin KEKIUS rose by over 900%, CoinGecko had then reported, as per the Hindustan Times.
However, as Musk returned to his original avatar and name, KEKIUS's value plummeted to $0.001165, underscoring the extremely volatile characteristic of meme-based cryptocurrencies.
The name 'Kekius Maximus' originates from a popular memecoin, KEKIUS. It's a term derived from the words Kek and maximus.
According to reports, Kek comes from the World of Warcraft and is common in internet trolling. Maximus is a Latin word meaning something grand or ultimate. Combined, Kekius Maximus means the ultimate meme lord.
Kekius Maximus is also believed to be a reference to Elon Musk's character in the Path of Exile 2 video game, a reference to the Gladiator movie.
It also refers to a pun on the internet-gaming term kek, a variation of lol (laugh out loud) that originated in South Korea and on the World of Warcraft online game.
The Kekius Maximus token normally derives its value from X posts by Musk, which explains why it surged to a record high of $0.3978 in January when he initially changed his X name, an article in Bankless Times stated.
The risk of buying the KEKIUS token is that Musk is known for changing his X name several times. Thus, the token price is likely to experience a harsh reversal if this occurs.
According to other eports, KEKIUS memecoin has already been listed by top-tier crypto exchanges led by Gate.io, and MEXC, among others. As a result, KEKIUS price is reportedly well positioned to rally exponentially in the coming months, especially amid the rising calls for an altseason.
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