Elon Musk once again triggered chaos in the crypto market. On February 11, the businessman changed his name on the social media platform X to "Harry Bōlz," which served as a catalyst for launching meme coins under the same name.
Musk had previously used the name Harry Bōlz in April 2023, sparking a wave of discussions, but it did not lead to significant market changes. However, this time, attention to his actions likely increased in light of news about his attempt to take control of OpenAI.
Within hours of Musk’s name change on X, the price of one of the HARRYBOLZ tokens surged by 40,000%. Traders rushed to buy the new meme coin, but not everyone managed to profit. One market participant, likely armed with insider information, purchased 128.77 million HARRYBOLZ tokens for 25 SOL ($5,078) four days before Musk's name change. After the sharp price jump, the trader managed to sell 109.8 million tokens for 3,650 SOL ($739,000).
At the time of writing, almost all tokens related to Harry Bōlz had dropped by around 90%.
Musk has repeatedly influenced cryptocurrency prices. His posts have previously sparked surges for Dogecoin (DOGE), Floki Inu, and other meme coins. On January 21, the logo of Dogecoin appeared on the new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) website. This caused a 10% price increase for the asset, raising its value from $0.35 to $0.38, with its market cap reaching $56.5 billion. It was later revealed that the Dogecoin logo on the site was not an official emblem but merely a reference to the name.
On December 31, Musk changed his name to "Kekius Maximus," which had a similar effect. The corresponding tokens surged by up to 6,000%. About a day later, Musk reverted to his old name, and the market's interest in the tokens evaporated, causing prices to crash.
On February 10, it was reported that Musk and a group of investors offered $97.4 billion for OpenAI’s nonprofit structure. CEO Sam Altman rejected the offer and countered with a suggestion to buy X for $9.74 billion.
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