TL;DR

Elon Musks influence has once again caused wild fluctuations in meme coin prices, with KEKIUS soaring 4,000% before collapsing 60%. The rapid price movements and lack of fundamental value in many meme coins highlight the importance of careful research and investing only what you can afford to lose.

Dumping Hard

The frog-themed meme coin Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) has been a hot topic in the crypto space in the past few days.

The token (whose logo represents a frog dressed in ancient Roman armor) experienced a nearly 4,000% price increase between December 30 and January 1. The pump could be attributed to Elon Musk, who changed his profile picture on X with the eponymous meme. 

The impressive spike allowed savvy traders to make millions due to entering the ecosystem at the right time. Lookonchain recently revealed the case of one industry participant who turned a $66 investment in KEKIUS into more than $3 million in just 18 days. 

However, the coins rally was short-lived, with its valuation crashing by 60% in the past 24 hours. At one point, KEKIUS dumped to as low as $0.08, while currently, it trades at around $0.15 (per CoinGeckos data). 

KEKIUS Price, Source: CoinGecko Its sudden collapse appears to have been triggered once again by Teslas CEO, who is now visible on X as himself in the background of the American flag and not as the logo of the frog-themed token.

Over the past few years, Musk has influenced the prices of many other meme coins through his tweets, public endorsements, and actions. One of the latest examples includes his comments regarding Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT). 

The meme coin is inspired by a pet squirrel named Peanut, which was euthanized to test for rabies after it reportedly bit a DEC worker during a seizure operation. Its death at the beginning of November last year caused huge controversy, with many people describing the move as unnecessary since the animal had lived indoors for years and showed no signs of the disease. 

Musk was among the critics, labeling the effort as a government overreach and provocatively saying that Donald Trump would save the squirrels. He continued to tweet about the animal in the following days, contributing to the coins price explosion to an all-time high of almost $2.30 on November 14. At that point, PNUTs market cap surpassed $2 billion, placing the asset among the top 10 biggest meme coins.

In the past month, though, Peanut the Squirrel has lost over 40% of its valuation while its capitalization fell below $800 million.

Be Careful With Memes

The enhanced volatility in the sector and the lack of fundamental value (in many meme coin projects) should serve as warnings to those contemplating jumping on the bandwagon.

Traders who still want to enter the ecosystem should follow some key rules to avoid a devastating outcome, such as investing only as much as they are ready to lose and conducting proper research beforehand.