Elon Musk has named his US government department after his favourite meme coin, DOGE.
Insiders say Donald Trump has been “giving candy” to friends and family who supported him including departmental positions.
Trump’s pro-crypto election win is also credited with helping drive Bitcoin to a staggering all-time high of $93,480 dollars on Wednesday, from just $5,000 in value when Trump first took power.
Senators are set to consider a bill proposing Bitcoin should be stockpiled as a US reserve currency which would send its value much higher. Trump, who has said he will never sell Bitcoin owned by the US government, has given Musk his own department.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX billionaire, who also owns X and is known as the Dogefather among other things, holds the dog themed meme coin DOGE which was started as a way to make fun of Bitcoin by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013.
It is considered the first meme coin and the first dog coin.
Doge coin became a phenomenon in 2021, with Musk and other prominent figures and celebrities endorsing the cryptocurrency. The meme coin became so popular that its market value rose to $45 billion in 2021.
Musk was one of the coin’s biggest supporters, so much so that in 2023 he even temporarily changed the logo on X, formerly known as Twitter, to the Doge dog logo, triggering a spike in Doge coin value.
Prior to Trump’s election, he asked to be made head of a new government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), further promoting the no-use case coin.
Meanwhile, experts now say Bitcoin, which now has a market cap greater than silver, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Exxon Mobile, Mastercard, CocaCola and even Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is going full steam ahead with investors’ appetite for the risk-on asset improving.
Shreyasee Majumder, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Following Trump’s election victory, influencers expressed growing optimism about Bitcoin’s future, anticipating favourable regulatory changes and potential government backing.
“Many believe a less restrictive environment could drive institutional investment and even lead to government-held Bitcoin reserves, sparking sustained price growth.
“While enthusiasm for Bitcoin’s long-term potential remained strong, some cautioned against its inherent volatility, urging careful risk management in the face of possible market corrections.
“Overall, the sentiment was positive, with many seeing the political shift as a key moment for Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption.”
Officially, Musk will lead the new efficiency department named D.O.G.E. after his favourite cryptocurrency, which he backs.
It soared in value after he was appointed head of a newly-created US state department with the same acronym, increasing 24.6 percent on Tuesday to nearly $0.44 and by about 10 per cent on Wednesday to over $0.42, surpassing the $0.40 mark for the first time since hitting a high of $0.44 on June 3, 2021.
On X, Musk responded to the announcement of his appointment with an image of a “DOGE” coin logo and a Shiba Inu that appeared to refer to doge coin, which features the dog’s face.
The cryptocurrency also responded to the news with an image of Musk, a Shiba Inu and a caption that reads, “We’re going in full throttle.”
The Tesla mogul will head up Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Vivek Ramaswamy, to ‘dismantle bureaucracy and slash regulations’
Trump has called the department potentially “the ‘Manhattan project’ of our time”.
But will Trump and Musk’s new department be all bark and no bite?
“This will send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in Government waste which is a lot of people,” Musk stated.
Ramaswamy has said he wants to shut down the FBI with Elon Musk.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” according to a statement by Trump shared on Musk’s X page on Tuesday.
Trump’s announcement even led to a continued increase of Dogecoin’s value on Tuesday night, with the cryptocurrency having risen more than 150% since Election Day.
Almost 20 million Bitcoin are already in circulation. Only 21 million will ever be “mined” with advocates including exchange trading funds managed by Blackrock and Fidelity now legitimising the asset by promoting it as digital gold to their customers through their exchange trading funds.
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