The price of the Dogecoin meme coin surged 3.2% within hours of the billionaire tycoon Elon Musk announcing his departure from the Department of Government Efficiency — tasked with slashing government spending — that he had been leading since January.
A meme coin is type of cryptocurrency that parodies a mainstream cryptocurrency. It is called so because it gives a nod to viral memes or internet trends.
Launched in December 2013, Dogecoin is a parody of the first decentralized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin . While not officially affiliated with the department Musk had been leading, its ticker DOGE is the same as the acronym of the said department.
As per Kraken's price feed , Dogecoin was trading at $0.225 at press time, up 25% a month.
The Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — another meme coin not officially affiliated with the department but launched as a nod to it — rose a modest 0.88% within hours of Musk's announcement. It was trading at $0.0003449 at press time, up 38.5% a month.
The world's wealthiest man, Musk helms the electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla , the social media platform X , and the space tech company SpaceX.
As President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January, he appointed Musk as his senior advisor and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk had vowed to slash “at least $2 trillion” from the federal budget but halved the target later before settling on a $150 billion target. While the department has struggled to reach its goal, it has been severely criticized for ending thousands of federal government jobs.
Elon Musk's DOGE exit triggers surprising rally first appeared on TheStreet on May 29, 2025