rewrite this title DOGE Boss Elon Musk Changes Name on X, Sends Solana Meme Coins Flying – Decrypt

X owner Elon Musk changed his account name on the platform to Harry Bōlz on Tuesday—and with this move, two Solana meme coins of the same name have skyrocketed, with one lucky trader turning a $156 investment into $52,000.

Musk, who is the richest man in the world and the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new arm of the U.S. government looking at reducing spending, renamed his X account on Tuesday morning. He didn’t explain why—however, this isn’t the first time that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has adopted the name. 

Back in April 2023, Musk first changed his name to Harry Bōlz, explaining that he was simply doing so to get media publications to refer to him by the name.

This most recent name change may be in reference to Edward Coristine, a Musk acolyte commonly referred to as “Big Balls,” who has taken on roles as senior adviser at the State Department and at the Department of Homeland Security. Coristine previously worked for Musk’s Neuralink startup and currently holds a position in DOGE. 

However, as reported by Bloomberg, the 19-year-old was previously fired from an internship for “leaking internal information” to competitors. His government positions will require handling sensitive information, possibly including classified and compromising material on other countries, The Washington Post reported. This led to one unnamed U.S. official telling the publication that the move is “dangerous.”

Despite the kickback, Musk continues to support Big Balls, with many believing the Harry Bōlz name change was made in solidarity.

And with this shift, two meme coins went parabolic. 

One of the Harry Bolz (HARRYBOLZ) tokens had been live since February 7, amid chatter of investors online predicting a Musk name change. This token skyrocketed 54,637% from a $45,900 market cap to $25.14 million in just one hour on Tuesday, though it has since fallen to $8.5 million.

One lucky trader bought $1,900 worth of the token on launch day, holding it until the name change and realizing $343,800 worth of profit with their sale. Another trader bought $156 over the first two days it launched, and has now realized $52,000 worth of profit.

A second token was also created, similarly called Harry Bōlz (HARRYBOLZ), and is currently sitting at a nearly $3 million market cap. As the token hasn’t been live as long, nor risen as high, there are far fewer winners—with the top trader profiting $6,179 from a $14,400 investment.

This isn’t the first time that Musk changing his X name has spawned a slew of meme coins that went flying.

In early January, Musk changed his name to Kekius Maximus in reference to his Path of Exile video game character. This led to Ethereum meme coin Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) soaring over 3,000%, from a $12.7 million market cap to nearly $400 million, in just 30 hours.

It all came crashing down when Musk changed his name back to normal, prompting the token to plummet 83% over a 10-hour time frame.

Edited by Andrew Hayward