Dogecoin is soaring after Trump made Elon Musk's DOGE dreams come true
Dogecoin was skyrocketing Wednesday after the news that the cryptocurrency’sbiggest cheerleader, Elon Musk, will head up a “Department of Government Efficiency” — effectively a non-government group that will consult on spending.
The popular memecoin, which was created as a joke, wastrading at $0.4006 on Wednesday, an increase of more than 15% in the past 24 hours and 121% over the last week.
Musk, the Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO, will be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy as “outside of government” consultants on federal spending for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. DOGE is not actually a government department, but rather a task force Musk pitched months ago when he interviewed the Republican.
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” Trump said in a statement, referring to the program that developed the first nuclear weapons.
Details about DOGE, which is seemingly an advisory board, remain scarce. Nonetheless, the announcement has stirred excitement within the Dogecoin community, which is eager about both the cryptocurrency’s future and Musk’s involvement.
How did Dogecoin find overnight success?
Created as a joke by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013, Dogecoin features the likeness of the Shiba Inu dog popularized in the Doge meme. But since then, Dogecoin has transformed into one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies.
Doge’s success can largely be traced to the GameStop saga when a group of small investors, encouraged by the Reddit community “WallStreetBets” and helped along by an Elon Musk tweet, skyrocketed GameStop (GME) shares to $86.88 in January 2021.
On Reddit, investors later discussed what cryptocurrency was equivalent to GameStop — and the answer was Dogecoin. Just as GameStop reached its peak, Dogecoin started to gain traction, peaking in May 2021 at $0.74 per coin.
When Musk became a proud ‘Dogefather’
After the GameStop saga, another event sent Dogecoin soaring: Elon Musk tweeted “Doge.” The price of Dogecoin surged dramatically, and crypto enthusiasts suddenly became interested in Dogecoin.
Later that year, Musk hosted NBC’s (CMCSA) “Saturday Night Live” and called himself a Dogefather. He continued promoting Dogecoin on various platforms, leading to its inclusion in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Musk once said Doge is his favorite cryptocurrency because “it has the best humor and it has dogs.”
Doge has ties to Tesla and SpaceX
Musk has made sure to incorporate Dogecoin into his electric vehicle and space missions.
At Tesla, Dogecoin can be used to purchase select merchandise, such as Cyberquad for Kids, Giga Texas Belt Buckle, and Cyberwhistle. Musk hinted recently that Dogecoin could be accepted as a payment method at Tesla in the future.
SpaceX has accepted Dogecoin as payment for the rescheduling of the DOGE-1 lunar mission.
— William Gavin contributed to this article.
