Kekius Maximus Kekius Maximus
The Kekius Maximus ($KEKIUS) token is said to have been named by Elon Musk himself. Kekius Maximus Website / Screenshot

KEY POINTS

  • $KEKIUS is up by more than 1,200% in the last 24 hours since Musk's name change on X
  • Musk has been tweeting about Kekius Maximus throughout December
  • The token's developer team said $KEKIUS was conceived by Grok and named by Musk himself

Elon Musk is at it again, driving the prices of memecoins, but this time, it's a significant surge in a specific token that was conceived by AI tool Grok and supposedly named by the tech titan himself.

Dubbed as "Elon's Pepe," the Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) token is up by a staggering 1,279% in the last 24 hours, becoming the largest gainer in the memecoin kingdom during New Year's Eve.

The token that appears to be a mash-up of "Gladiator" film Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, Pepe the Frog from Matt Furie's popular cartoon "Boy's Club," and "kek," the term internet trolls as a variation of the internet-staple acronym for laugh out loud, "LOL," has become an overnight star.

KEKIUS price late Dec 31 2024
$KEKIUS price late Dec. 31, 2024 IBTimes US

Musk Shakes Memecoin Realm

The Tesla CEO first tweeted about Kekius Maximus on Dec. 10, reposting a photo posted by "The Benny Show" podcast executive producer Alex Lorusso, which depicted Pepe the Frog as a Roman warrior.

He tweeted a couple more times about the character throughout December before he ultimately changed his name on X to Kekius Maximus and also changed his profile photo to Pepe in Roman warrior armor on New Year's Eve.

He reposted DogeDesigner's post regarding the name change to further confirm his move.

Soon after the name change, $KEKIUS surged above 900% and is leading the entire global crypto market in 24-hour gains. The coin's market cap is now over $183 million. The token's surge has been called the "Elon effect."

The SpaceX founder has since been posting about his new persona and even the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley X account posted about the development.

Crypto Goes Crazy Over $KEKIUS

Since Musk's personification of Kekius Maximus, holders of the token have been posting about the massive gains the coin has given in the last 24 hours.

Cryptocurrency trading platform CoinEx also announced the listing of KEKIUS, paired with Tether's USDT stablecoin.

There are several other tokens that have since popped up after Musk first made his name change Wednesday, including the KM coin. However, KEKIUS, whose team supposedly "continues to be directly engaged with Elon," is the one that's seen skyrocketing gains.

Rising crypto sleuth Crypto Rug Muncher pointed out that the KEKIUS community would have been great "if we didn't have multiple versions of it – sometimes even on the same chain, competing against each other."

The team behind KEKIUS stated on the token's official website that Kekius Maximus "embodies the spirit of internet rebellion, free speech, and the chaotic, beautiful mess that is online culture."

$PEPE Climbs Along

Meanwhile, the PEPE memecoin, which is the original meme crypto token based off of Furie's Pepe cartoon character, also rode in KEKIUS's mantle, rising by over 14% in the past day amid hype among the token's community.

Musk is a known huge fan of memes and has been "pumping" a select few memecoins, including his all-time favorite and the world's largest meme token, Dogecoin (DOGE).