New Year 2025 proved something of an unexpected bonanza for meme coin investors who traded a cryptocurrency known as KEKIUS MAXIMUS (KEKIUS).
Specifically, similar to April when X gave doge-themed digital assets a boost with its temporary logo change, KEKIUS was rocketed by Elon Musk’s decision to change his name on the platform to Kekius Maximus.
The switch, often described as ‘bizarre,’ enabled one early KEKIUS MAXIMUS investor to turn the $66 he spent buying the meme coin around December 14 on Uniswap (UNI) into $3.05 million, according to data retrieved via Lookonchain on January 2.
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The entire maneuver was executed across 18 days, with the first sale coming already on December 17 and being followed by a series of such trades executed on the edge between the old and the new year when KEKIUS was surging.
Was the KEKIUS trade the crowning achievement of the 2024 meme coin market?
In many ways, the incredibly lucrative investment concluded an otherwise strong year for meme coin investors. Indeed, 2024 featured numerous stories of traders turning tens, hundreds, or thousands of dollars into hundreds of thousands and even millions with cryptocurrencies such as HAWTUAH and MOODENG.
Still, it is worth remembering that there is a winning bias and that, despite multiple incredible rags-to-riches stories, it is likely that the vast majority of meme coin traders lost far more than they gained.
If the original HAWKTUAH trades of the unofficial fan token generated significant success stories, Hailey Welch’s – the Hawk Tuah Girl’s – official digital asset, launched towards the end of 2024, plummeted so significantly and rapidly that it led to a class-action lawsuit.
How the KEKIUS trade fits within the pattern of Elon Musk pumps
Additionally, the KEKIUS trade is emblematic of another surprisingly common occurrence in the cryptocurrency market: the Elon Musk pumps.
The South African-Canadian-American billionaire has, on multiple occasions in recent years, helped specific digital assets experience remarkable rallies.
Along with KEKIUS MAXIMUS, the most notable examples include Dogecoin’s (DOGE) original massive rally toward $0.69 – a high not reclaimed since the original Elon Musk pump – and Bitcoin (BTC) which essentially doubled in value during its brief tenure as a payment vehicle accepted by Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA).
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