Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency Dogecoin spiked by as much as 20% Wednesday after the Tesla mogul was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead a newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” — or DOGE.
The meme coin, which features an image of a Shiba Inu breed dog and was created as a joke to poke fun at other cryptocurrencies, has more than doubled in value since Election Day, trading at 42 cents at 10:30 a.m. ET. Since the start of the year, Dogecoin has surged 353%.
The rally has helped Dogecoin blow past XRP to become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of nearly $60 billion as of Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Dogecoin has increased 106% since Trump crushed Vice President Kamala Harris last week — easily surpassing Bitcoin’s 30% rise during the same period.
Nonetheless, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $91,584 on Wednesday.
Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.
On Tuesday, he appointed Musk and former GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, which will function as an advisory committee outside of the government.
Trump said that the two men “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulation, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
In his statement, Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will offer the White House “advice and guidance” while partnering with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large-scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”
Musk posted on X: “Department of Government Efficiency. The merch will be (fire emojis).” Later he added: “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”
Musk, the richest person in the world whose net worth was valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $319 billion as of Tuesday, has been an ardent champion of Trump during the campaign.
Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who last year was reported to be worth $1 billion, endorsed Trump after dropping out of the presidential race.
After being appointed the co-head of DOGE, Ramaswamy announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from consideration for the soon-to-be-open US Senate seat from Ohio, which will be vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The president-elect has often said he would give Musk a formal role overseeing a group akin to a blue-ribbon commission that would recommend ways to slash spending and make the federal government more efficient.
Musk at one point suggested he could find more than $2 trillion in savings — nearly a third of total annual government spending.
Trump had made clear that Musk would likely not hold any kind of full-time position, given his other commitments.
“I don’t think I can get him full-time because he’s a little bit busy sending rockets up and all the things he does,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan in September.
“He said the waste in this country is crazy. And we’re going to get Elon Musk to be our cost cutter.”
With Post wires
