Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, has long been considered an influential figure in the world of meme coins. His support has historically propelled tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE) to unprecedented heights. However, his latest stunt with 'Gorklon Rust' sparked a rally that, while noticeable, cannot compare to past frenzies.
Given that GORK failed to reach a market capitalization of $100 million, market observers are wondering: is Musk's influence on meme coins diminishing in 2025?
Musk's Influence on Meme Coins is Not What It Used to Be, Analysts Claim
On May 4, Musk switched to 'Gorklon Rust' and changed his profile picture on X, which triggered a spike in the GORK meme coin based on Solana (SOL). Despite this, it failed to reach a market capitalization of $100 million.
"It’s quite strange that even a profile picture change by Elon Musk no longer has a significant impact. GORK rose from $45 million to $75 million in market capitalization, and now it has fallen back to $65 million," wrote an analyst.
Many others share a similar sentiment, highlighting the diminishing impact of Musk's antics.
"Altcoin liquidity status: Elon Musk, with 200 million followers, promotes a meme but barely raises it above $50 million," added analyst Khim.
This is not an isolated case. In February 2025, Musk's brief rebranding to Harry Bōlz raised the HARRYBOLZ token to a market capitalization of only $9.5 million. Moreover, in December 2024, when Musk endorsed 'Kekius Maximus' as a username, the market capitalization of KEKIUS reached just over $88 million.
Similarly, when the CEO shared the Dogefather meme, several tokens with similar names were created. However, none of them even came close to a valuation of $100 million.
In contrast, Musk's consistent support for DOGE often triggered significant rallies for the dog-themed meme coin in 2020-2021. This added billions, not just millions, to its value. Besides DOGE, many other meme coins also benefited from Musk's mentions.
"Elon is literally the most influential player in the world today when it comes to launching meme coin movements. He has inspired/fueled the largest meme coin movements in the world today, mostly through a few tweets: doge, shiba inu, floki, etc.,” wrote a user in September 2024.
However, recent data suggests otherwise. The difference indicates that Musk's influence is less scalable. While he can still trigger short-term spikes for smaller tokens, pushing meme coins to $100 million or more seems increasingly unattainable.
"Notice how Elon Musk could previously move billions in market capitalization with a single tweet, and now even changing his profile picture cannot add $50 million to already very low trading meme coins. This indicates that people are really getting tired and moving away from chasing the next meme coin," said analyst Ajay Kashyap.
This is not all. Even when Musk triggers a rally, the gains are short-lived. The rapid rise and fall of GORK is a prime example. Its market capitalization fell to just $35 million at the time of publication, according to CoinGecko data.
"Either it still has time to develop, or Musk no longer has the same influence on the meme coin market as DOGE did in 2021," stated an analyst.
Meanwhile, a market observer emphasized that Elon Musk's influence on the cryptocurrency market, particularly on meme coins, is unlikely to be as significant as it was in the past.
He noted that the conditions when Musk's influence peaked are significantly different from the current market. The crypto industry has seen a surge in meme coins, and as a result, money has been spread across numerous assets, diluting the potential impact of Musk's support.
It is worth noting that Musk's actions often trigger a wave of copycat tokens, such as clones of Gorklon Rust and Kekius Maximus, which appear on platforms like Pump.fun.
These fakes dilute the performance of the original token by spreading investor capital and sowing confusion. This trend also harms perception, as copies often turn out to be pump and dump schemes. The spread of fakes further undermines trust in Musk-backed tokens, limiting their potential.
Thus, while Musk retains the ability to generate some interest in the market, the era when he single-handedly pushed meme coins to extraordinary valuations may well be behind us.#memecoin🚀🚀🚀 #Binance #Write2Earn #BinanceSquare #IlonMask $SOL