By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-01 02:21:21 | Updated at 2025-01-03 22:53:25
2 days ago
Elon Musk adopted the moniker “Kekius Maximus” on X Tuesday, sparking speculation among his 210 million followers about his mysterious new handle that is a mash-up of an alt-right symbol, a memecoin, and the lead character of the movie Gladiator.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a confidant of US President-elect Donald Trump, also replaced his profile picture with one of “Pepe the Frog”, a popular cartoon character, wearing ancient Roman attire and holding a video game joystick.
In typical Musk fashion, the billionaire tech mogul and owner of X – formerly Twitter – offered no explanation about the new username and avatar, but the move triggered immediate ripple effects.
The change roiled the cryptocurrency world, sending the value of a memecoin – a digital currency inspired by an internet meme – with the same name skyrocketing.
It also sent internet sleuths hunting for answers: was the name change just for the laughs? Was there a hidden message? Was this another thinly-disguised attempt to jolt the crypto markets? More troublingly, was it a wink and a nod to online hate groups?
