Elon Musk's temporary change of his Twitter handle to "Harry Bōlz" has sparked a flurry of activity in the cryptocurrency market as meme coins bearing that name have seen rapid fluctuations in their value.
The Solana-based HARRYBOLZ token, created on February 7, has seen its price rise to $0.025, reaching a market cap of around $25 million.
The rally was short-lived, with the price dropping 97% to $0.0008, equivalent to a market cap of around $800,000. The dramatic drop came after Musk reverted to his original Twitter name. The token had seen a trading volume of around $100 million in the 24 hours before the drop, according to DEX Screener.
A notable transaction was made by a wallet known as “LeBron,” known for its previous large profits from the official TRUMP and MELANIA tokens. “LeBron” purchased 128.8 million HARRYBOLZ tokens for 25 SOL ($4,900) on the day of the token’s launch and later sold 109.9 million tokens for 3,649 SOL ($737,000) on Tuesday, according to analytics platform Lookonchain.
Another Solana token, HarryBolz, which emerged after Musk’s name change, also saw a surge, reaching a market cap of $8.4 million before crashing more than 99% to just $75,000. The token’s top trader made a profit of nearly $10,000, according to DEX Screener data.
The market has seen the launch of several HarryBolz copycat tokens on the Solana network. These tokens have mirrored the pattern of rapid rises followed by sharp declines, albeit with much lower trading volumes.
This isn’t the first time Musk has influenced the meme coin market through his social media actions. In April 2023, he previously changed his profile name to Harry Bōlz, and on New Year’s Eve, he temporarily adopted the name “Kekius Maximus.” Following the latter change, the market cap of the main Kekius Maximus coin surged more than 30-fold from around $12 million to over $380 million at its peak, before falling by more than 75% after Musk returned to using his real name.
Musk’s recent use of the name Harry Bōlz is also believed to be a show of support for Edward Korestein, a staffer at Musk’s Government Efficiency Administration who has held various positions within the U.S. government. Critics have raised concerns about Korestein’s potential access to sensitive data, citing his age, inexperience, and a previous leak. Korestein also briefly worked for Musk’s Neuralink company.
Amidst the social media buzz, Polymarket humorously suggested that Harry Bolz had a 94% lead over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a fictional 2040 presidential election, demonstrating the playful nature of the online community’s response to Musk’s actions.
