Elon Musk made waves in the crypto market again as he changed his avatar on social platform X. This change sent Solana-based memecoin, Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) into a downward spiral. The coin sank by around 90% after the tech mogul changed his avatar on the social media platform. The meme coin had surged by over 900% as the tech entrepreneur changed his name to Kekius Maximus on December 31. Initially trading below 20 cents, its value skyrocketed within hours. In the past 24 hours, the meme coin has been on a roller coaster ride. The coin surged to a peak of $0.0057 but nosedived 90% within 10 minutes when Musk reverted to his original name and avatar. Despite the dramatic crash, KEKIUS is up 400% over the last 24 hours, riding the momentum from earlier gains. The push from the world’s richest man also sent the coin’s trading volume to new heights. The coin’s trading volume exploded 1,221% to $9.9 million in the same period. The market ripple extended to other meme tokens, with the Ethereum-based Pepe (PEPE) slipping 2.7% over the last 24 hours, erasing recent gains. The coin had jumped 12% when Musk changed his profile on December 31. Musk surprised the X community earlier by temporarily renaming himself “Kekius Maximus” and adopting a profile picture of cartoon character Pepe the Frog reimagined as Maximus, the iconic gladiator from the movie Gladiator . Musk and meme coins Musk has a history of influencing cryptocurrency markets, particularly with meme coins. His early tweets about Dogecoin majorly boosted its value, and he has hinted at integrating it with Tesla and X. He further fueled speculation by briefly changing his X profile to a Dogecoin mascot. He has previously also interacted with Pepe-related content, including retweeting a generated image of Kekius Maximus. Broader crypto market today The cryptocurrency market demonstrated bullish momentum today. The total cryptocurrency market cap expanded close to 3% in the last 24 hours to $3.36 trillion. Trading volume, on the other hand, saw a 9.2% decline to $99.38 billion. Trading activity is expected to pick up as the holiday season concludes. Bitcoin (BTC) price today surged past $95,000 after dipping to $92,000 earlier. Bitcoin was trading at $95,416, up 2% in the past 24 hours. It recorded a low of $92,788 and a high of $95,824.39 during the same period. Trading volumes were down 20% at $28.71 billion. Ethereum’s price climbed up by 2%, trading at $3,406.05. Its 24-hour low was $3,310, and its high was $3,419. Trading activity was slow in coin. Volumes dropped 15% in the last 24 hours. XRP surged 12% over the last 24 hours, trading at $2.39. Trading activity was also robust in the coin. Volumes shot up 122% to $10.18 billion. It touched a low of $2.09 and a high of $2.44 during the period. The post Elon Musk’s return to original X avatar tanks ‘Kekius Maximus’ coin by 90% appeared first on Invezz
