Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, surged as much as 20% on Wednesday after the Tesla mogul was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head a newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” — or DOGE.
The meme coin, which features an image of a Shiba Inu dog and was created as a joke to mock other cryptocurrencies, has doubled in value since Election Day, trading at 42 cents as of 10:30 a.m. morning ET. Since the beginning of the year, Dogecoin is up 353%.
The rally has helped Dogecoin overtake XRP to become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of nearly $60 billion as of Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Dogecoin is up 106% since Trump tapped Vice President Kamala Harris last week – easily outpacing Bitcoin’s 30% rise over the same period.
However, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $91,584 on Wednesday.
Trump embraced the digital asset during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to amass a national bitcoin reserve.
On Tuesday, he named Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, which will function as an advisory committee outside the government.
Trump said the two men “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle the government bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulation, cut wasteful spending and restructure Federal Agencies.”
In his statement, Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will provide the White House with “advice and guidance” as they work with the Office of Management and Budget to “lead broad-based structural reform and create an approach entrepreneurial approach to government that has never been seen before”.
Musk posted on X: “Department of Government Efficiency. The trade will be (fire emoji).” Then he added: “Threat to democracy? No, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”
Musk, the world’s richest person whose net worth was estimated by the 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 he dropped out of the presidential race.
After being named DOGE co-chair, Ramaswamy announced Tuesday that he was withdrawing from consideration for the soon-to-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 an official role overseeing a group similar to a blue-ribbon commission that would recommend ways to cut 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 the government’s total annual spending.
Trump had made it clear that Musk would not hold any kind of full-time position, given his other commitments.
“I don’t think I can take him full time because he’s a little busy sending missiles 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 have Elon Musk be our cost-cutter.”
By postal wire
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