Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today, in crypto, a lucky memecoin trader profited over $3 million after buying $66 worth of a Pepe-Gladiator-themed memecoin in mid-December. The community behind the memecoin Floki has allocated a portion of its funds to provide liquidity for its upcoming Exchange-Traded Product (ETP). In the United Kingdom, illegal cryptocurrency advertisements continue to thrive despite regulator warnings. Elon Musk’s bizarre name change on X turns trader’s $66 into $3M profitElon Musk’s brief name change on X to “Kekius Maximus” — a reference to a Pepe-Gladiator meme — has seen one lucky memecoin trader turn $66 of Ether into as much as $3 million in just 18 days.The trader bought 10.17 million of the Kekius Maximus (KEKIUS) memecoins 18 days ago on Dec. 14 and sold 2.81 million of the tokens for 60.3 Ether on Jan. 1 while holding the rest — marking an eye-popping 45,900-fold paper gain, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain said on X.Kekius Maximus is a mashup of the internet meme Pepe the Frog and Maximus Decimus Meridius, the main protagonist of the 2000 film Gladiator, played by Russell Crowe.Etherscan data shows the KEKIUS memecoin was created on Dec. 13, which accumulated $11.4 million by Dec. 31 before exploding to $380 million at its peak on Jan. 1, according to CoinGecko.Floki DAO approves ETP funding in unanimous voteThe Floki DAO has unanimously voted to allocate part of its community buyback wallet, containing 16.3 billion Floki tokens, as liquidity for the upcoming Floki Exchange-Traded Product (ETP). This ETP, set to launch in Q1 2025, will provide traditional finance investors in Europe with exposure to Floki, a memecoin ranked 66th by market capitalization.According to CoinGecko, memecoins were the second-best-performing crypto narrative of 2024. The sector returned an average of roughly 2,185% to investors during the year — second only to artificial intelligence, which returned an average of approximately 2,939%.Illegal crypto ads prevail in UK despite FCA warningIllegal crypto advertisements continue to target residents of the United Kingdom despite its financial regulator asking crypto projects to remove their advertisements targeting the country. According to a Financial Times report, 54% of the 1,702 alerts issued by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) between October 2023 and October 2024 ended in illegal crypto ads being taken down. The report said the rest of the crypto-related promotions are still up. The report said that despite the FCA’s ability to fine or bring criminal cases against violators, it has instead focused on financial influencers who promoted their schemes online.