Elon Musk left X followers puzzled by his new nickname, but it appears to have had dramatic consequences beyond trolling, as the SpaceX billionaire continues to build his already powerful empire
He has one of the most recognisable names on the planet but Elon Musk chose to go by a new alias – Harry Bōlz. But what’s the reasoning behind it?
Taking to his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, tech billionaire Musk last night changed his display name to Harry Bōlz – a jokey play on the slang term ‘Hairy Balls’, as previously acknowledged by Musk back in 2023. Many have also taken this moniker to be a reference to 19-year-old Edward Coristine, who had interned at Neuralink – Musk’s brain chip company – before being fired for allegedly leaking insider information to a rival firm.
Often referred to as ‘Big Balls’ online by supporters, Coristine is now listed as a “senior adviser” at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, as well as the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – a controversial initiative set up to cut government spending.
In his new role at DOGE, Coristine will have access to sensitive government files, including personal information concerning millions of US citizens’ finances and medical histories. This appointment has raised significant security concerns, however, the White House insists all DOGE personnel must pass appropriate security clearances.
But it’s been speculated that Musk’s temporary nickname is about much more than a simple nod to his latest divisive hire – and it’s already making plenty more money…
As the richest man on the planet, Musk, 53, doesn’t exactly need any more money, it would appear this name change has done wonders for a little known meme coin, also called Harry Bōlz. According to Yahoo! Finance, two Solana-based tokens of the same name soared in value.
One of these, launched February 7, saw its market cap skyrocket from $45,900 to $25.14 million in one hour flat before settling at ‘just’ $8.5 million. An early trader who invested $156 cashed out a cool $52,000, while another managed to turn $1,900 into $343,800.
Musk has neither confirmed nor denied that he had intended to pump value into the coin, however the impact is impossible to ignore, and has sparked further speculation over a longer game being played out here – especially given reports that, on Monday, February 10, a Musk-led consortium offered a whopping $97.4 billion to get control over artificial intelligence company, OpenAI.
In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Musk declared: “It is time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens.”
However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made it clear his company is not for sale. In a post tweeted on X, Altman, 39, fiirmly told Musk: “no thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Apparantly not happy with this reply, Musk responded by referring to Altman as a “swindler”.
This comes after an unnamed US official told The Washington Post that the appointment of Elon’s protege Coristine was “dangerous” due to the teenager’s lack of experience, and history of allegedly leaking important information. Another anonymous source, who knows one of the DOGE engineers personally, told the Post that it is concerning to see just how powerful the DOGE team has become in such a short space of time.
They shared: “It’s not like they have a history of informed political opinion. They’re just in it for solving hard problems: It’s like, ‘Oh, a big challenge, it’s a big puzzle.’ I’m sure he just grew up solving puzzles and doing hard problems, and this is just another one and also has the perk of being around the president and billionaires.
“That is such a narrow view of the world. It’s not at all appropriate, I don’t think, for something with such a broad impact.”
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