Musk changed his nickname and avatar, and the tokens of the emoticon package of the same name soared by 12,600%.

On Tuesday local time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk changed the name of his account on the X platform to "Kekius Maximus", sparking speculation about his mysterious new name among his 210 million fans. The new name appears to be a mix of alt-right symbols, memes and the name of the main character from the movie Gladiator.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a confidant of US President-elect Donald Trump, has also changed his profile picture to that of Pepe the Frog, a popular cartoon character who wears ancient Roman garb and holds a video game joystick.

Note: "Kek" is closely related to meme images such as pepe the frog, and "Maximus" is Latin, meaning "biggest" or "greatest", and was often used as a title for ancient Roman generals or heroes.

Musk gave no explanation for the new username and avatar, but the move immediately set off a chain reaction that sent the value of the eponymous meme token soaring. The price of KekiusM (KM) on the Solana chain increased by more than 12,600%, and its market value exceeded US$45 million in a short time.

Musk's new name appears to be a mix of "Maximus Decimus Meridius" (the name of the protagonist in the movie "Gladiator") and "kek" (an expression popular among alt-right and online trolls that is a variation of "LOL").

Peppa Frog was originally a cartoon character in the Boys' Club comic series. But during Trump's first presidential campaign, it became associated with the alt-right and white supremacists, with the Anti-Defamation League calling it a "symbol of hate."

"Most uses of Pepe the Frog are non-judgmental and will continue to be so," the Anti-Defamation League wrote on its website. However, the league added that as the meme spread online, it came to center on "racist, anti-Semitic, or other bigoted themes."

Before changing his account name, Musk posted a notice on X: "KekiusMaximus' hardcore PoE will soon reach level 80." PoE obviously refers to the popular video game "Path of Exile 2". Musk is known to love playing the game, calling it a "hall of famer" in a post on X earlier this month.