Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, made headlines by changing his display name on X (formerly Twitter) to “gorklon rust” and updating his profile picture with a Gork-inspired meme. This action sparked a surge in Gork-themed tokens, leading to the creation of several new “gorklon rust” tokens that experienced significant price increases, some as high as 7,000%. Gork's follower count on X also notably rose from around 86,000 to over 113,000.

The rise in meme coins related to the “gork” theme caused a frenzy in the market. One such meme coin named New XAI Gork (GORK) saw a surge of 58.7% in market capitalization, surpassing $64 million and ranking second on CoinGecko’s trending list. Following this, more meme coins under the “gorklon rust” label were launched, witnessing even more remarkable gains, with some spiking between 4,000% and 7,000% in value within just 24 hours.

Despite the initial excitement, the market frenzy around these meme coins quickly showed signs of cooling off, with some tokens experiencing sharp price drops. This serves as a reminder of the high volatility and speculative nature of meme coin trading, where swift price shifts are common.

This situation mirrors Musk's past actions that influenced meme coin markets, like the adoption of the “Kekius Maximus” persona leading to a 504% increase in the KEKIUS meme coin. Similarly, his username change to “Harry Bolz” in February 2025 resulted in a 3,000% surge in the HARRYBOLZ meme coin. Musk's involvement as the “Dogefather” also led related tokens to significant gains in the past. While Musk's recent move has led to excitement and potential profits for some, it emphasizes the speculative and short-lived nature of meme coins and the trends associated with them.