TL;DR

A profile update by Musk on X sent obscure meme coins soaring, proving once again his strong influence over speculative crypto assets. However, the peaks of those tokens were short-lived as they headed south just as quickly, showcasing the notorious volatility of the meme coin niche.

Musk Makes Waves Again

One of the wealthiest people on the planet is known for his ability to impact crypto markets with his announcements, comments, and other interactions. Most recently, Musk changed his account name on X (formerly Twitter) to gorklon rust and put the logo of the recently-launched meme coin New XAI Gork (GORK) as his profile picture.

The asset in question soared by roughly 75% to around $0.0832 (per CoinGeckos data). In the following hours, GORK retreated to the current $0.0678 but remains in the green on a daily scale. Meanwhile, the tokens market capitalization briefly spiked above $80 million before settling at around $67 million (as of this writing).

GORK Price, Source: CoinGecko GORK draws inspiration from the AI chatbot Grok. The latter is developed by xAI a company founded by Musk and provides witty alternatives to other AI assistants like ChatGPT. Grok is also deeply integrated into X.

Other memes in that category also experienced enhanced volatility after Musks actions. $GROK, for instance, surged by double digits. However, that peak was short-lived, and in the following hours, the gains were almost entirely erased. 

One of the Previous Cases

Several months ago, the price of another meme coin jumped substantially after a similar interaction from Elon Musk.

Towards the end of last year, Teslas CEO changed his profile picture on X to Kekius Maximus, an amphibian wearing ancient Roman armor. The frog-themed meme coin KEKIUS reacted more than positively, with its price skyrocketing by nearly 4,000% in a matter of a single day. Meanwhile, the whopping rally allowed savvy traders to turn investments of under $100 into millions of dollars. 

As in many other cases, though, KEKIUSs bull run was short-lived. Its valuation collapsed by 60% in the span of 24 hours after Musk was no longer visible as Kekius Maximus on the social media platform. The slide continued in the following months, and the meme coin is now down almost 90% since the peak at the start of the year. 

This is another example of the risks and dangers associated with the niche. That said, people contemplating dealing with meme coins should do proper research beforehand and invest only as much as they are ready to part with.