Elon Musk changed his profile name on social media platform X to “Kekius Maximus” on Tuesday, December 31st. This sparked a flurry of questions from his followers.
Elon Musk changed his profile picture on X Photo: Video Capture
Musk’s new profile picture on his X account is a meme, which is known as “Pepe the Frog”, with the character also dressed in gladiator-like armor.
Musk, who is close to President-elect Donald Trump, has yet to offer an explanation for the sudden name change.
He did, however, share a post on X, which states: “I am Kekius Maximus, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and X, servant of the vision of human progress. The father of many innovations, the supporter of the idea of interplanetary life. And I will achieve my goals, in this era or the next“.
Journalists at the New York Post say the new name is a bizarre combination of “Pepe the Frog” and Russell Crowe’s character Maximus Decimus Meridius from the 2000 movie Gladiator.
Musk’s profile picture shows “Pepe” clad in golden armor while holding a video game controller.
In another post on X, the Tesla founder wrote: “Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE“.
PoE is an apparent reference to the popular video game ‘Path of Exile 2’, which Musk is known to play, which could be another meaning of the profile picture change.
Kekius Maximus is also the name of a “memecoin”, a cryptocurrency based on a popular online meme. Musk has previously caused huge ripples in the crypto market with his social media posts, especially dogecoin.
Following Musk’s profile picture change, the Kekius Maximus crypto has surged more than 900% since Tuesday afternoon, according to CoinGecko.
Also, according to BBC journalists, “Kekius” seems to be a Latinization of “kek”, a word similar to the expression “laugh out loud” (in English: “laugh out loud”, abbreviated LOL), popularized by online players, but who is now associated with the extreme right.
“Kek” is also the name of the ancient Egyptian god of darkness, who is sometimes depicted with the head of a frog.
Many people have speculated online that Musk’s motive is also related to claims that he has a superfan account, the New York Post writes.
“The detectives” on the Internet have suggested that Elon Musk is behind an X account, which appears under the name Adrian Dittmann, and which continues to praise the billionaire.
Musk has denied being Dittmann and mocked people who claim he operates the alternate account. The billionaire added fuel to the fire after he shared a post made from Dittmann’s account that mentioned the Kekius Maximus saga.
