For a long time, Elon Musk – the tech billionaire and CEO of Tesla – was seen as the most powerful 'wave maker' in the world of meme coins. With just a tweet or a profile picture on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he once ignited the value of Dogecoin (DOGE) and a host of other 'funny' cryptocurrencies, causing their market cap to increase by billions of USD. However, in 2025, many signs indicate that Musk's influence on the meme coin market is clearly weakening.

GORK: The ‘Return’ Not As Expected

On May 4, Elon Musk stirred the community when he changed his profile picture on X to one related to 'Gorklon Rust' – a new meme. Immediately, GORK – a meme coin on the Solana platform – witnessed a strong price surge, with its market cap rising from 45 million USD to 75 million USD. However, just a few days later, GORK fell back to 65 million USD and is currently around 35 million USD according to data from CoinGecko.

An analyst comments:

"It's hard to believe that even when Elon Musk changed his profile picture, it couldn't help GORK surpass the 100 million USD mark. This has never happened before."

Continuous Signs of Weakness

In fact, GORK is not an isolated case. In February 2025, when Musk unexpectedly changed his account name to 'Harry Bōlz', the token HARRYBOLZ only reached a market cap of about 9.5 million USD. Previously, in December 2024, he used the name 'Kekius Maximus', but the token KEKIUS also only peaked at around 88 million USD – a modest figure compared to DOGE's golden era.

Another analyst says:

"Elon used to be able to boost the entire market capitalization by billions of USD with just a single tweet. But now, even eye-catching actions like changing a profile picture only add less than 50 million USD to the market cap of small meme coins. The market is gradually becoming immune."

Why Isn’t Elon Musk ‘Divine’ With Meme Coins Anymore?

  1. Decreased altcoin liquidity: Investors are no longer willing to pour money into new tokens just because they are mentioned by Musk. The thin spread of liquidity makes it difficult for coins to reach impressive milestones like before.

  2. Explosion in the number of meme coins: The market is now flooded with meme coins, with hundreds of new tokens appearing each week – especially on the Pump.fun platform. When a figure like Musk 'shills' a token, dozens of clones immediately appear, splitting the liquidity and overshadowing the original.

  3. Decreased trust: The continuous emergence of clone tokens – which are often just 'pump and dump' projects – has made the community more alert. This significantly diminishes the psychological effect that once helped Musk successfully 'ride the wave' in the past.

Dogecoin Is Still An Exception

Although new meme coins have not recently seen the expected explosion, DOGE – the 'spiritual child' supported by Musk from 2020 to 2021 – still maintains a certain standing. DOGE once increased its market cap by billions of USD thanks to a simple tweet from Musk, laying the groundwork for today's meme coin trend. However, that period came with a surge in speculation and strong FOMO, which the current market no longer has.

Conclusion: The Era of Elon Musk’s Meme Coin is Gradually Closing

Elon Musk remains a highly influential figure, and each of his moves can still impact the market. However, this influence is diminishing both in scale and duration. The inability of tokens like GORK, KEKIUS, or HARRYBOLZ to maintain their price momentum indicates that the investment community has gradually become 'immune' to meme tactics and is now more cautious about what was once considered Musk's 'magic'.

Can Elon Musk reshape the meme coin market once again, or is this a warning bell signaling the end of an era? Time will tell.