As Dogecoin makes a comeback following Bitcoin's surge, some may be wondering: Where did this asset come from? What is it used for? And what does Tesla CEO Elon Musk have to do with it?
The original meme coin's meteoric rise is largely due to the world's richest man. Musk's obsession with posting nonsense has helped propel the coin to the top 10 of the top cryptocurrencies.
It's been a strange ride over the past few years, culminating in Musk being appointed co-head of a government agency called DOGE—yes, really. But we'll explain it all.
2018: What is DOGE?
Dogecoin is the largest and oldest meme coin and the second largest proof-of-work cryptocurrency. It was created in 2013 as a joke by developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.
The idea was to mock the large number of altcoins and cryptocurrency projects that entered the market after Bitcoin's rapid growth, and the coin was relatively unknown and had a low price in its early years.
But then Musk came along. The eccentric billionaire asked Palmer in a 2018 tweet to help solve the Twitter bot problem. Scammers have created a number of high-profile fake accounts, including Musk’s, to promote cryptocurrency scams, which often post fake Ethereum giveaways.
This is the first time Musk has shown real interest in Dogecoin.
2019: the pump begins
Musk began pumping Dogecoin the following year. “Dogecoin might be my favorite cryptocurrency,” he wrote in April 2019, responding to a screenshot of a poll from the official Dogecoin account asking who should be the CEO of the cryptocurrency. “This is awesome.”
This post would be the first of many that would send the asset's value soaring. Shortly after Musk's first tweet about Dogecoin, the coin's market cap hit $400 million and the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi listed it.
Musk being Musk, however, didn't stop there: He identified himself as the CEO of Dogecoin — briefly — on Twitter before continuing to tweet asking whether the coin "is actually a valid form of currency" or posting memes related to the original Dogecoin.
2020/2021: The Bull Run is Here
Musk continued to push Dogecoin's price up with his tweets, but things really took off in the 2021 bull run. Major exchanges like Coinbase Pro listed Dogecoin and the asset developed a larger following, not to mention increased public awareness.
DOGE has a market capitalization larger than many companies in the S&P 500. Developers have privately told Decrypt that they have been secretly working with Musk since 2019 to turn the coin into a valid payment method and a greener, cheaper alternative to Bitcoin.
But things got even stranger when Musk called himself the “Dogefather” during a “Saturday Night Live” skit about the cryptocurrency—which again sent the asset’s price soaring. DOGE would rise to an all-time high of around $0.73 at the time.
Musk's appearance on "SNL" ultimately failed to impress Doge fans, with the SpaceX CEO and his mother alluding to the coin eventually driving its price down. Still, it continued to bring the strange world of meme coins into the mainstream.
Later that year, Musk announced that his rocket company, SpaceX, would launch a satellite to the moon—funded entirely with cryptocurrency.
2022: Tesla/Twitter Fever
Doge craze continued into 2022 when Musk's car company began accepting Dogecoin for sales. Dogecoin continued to rise in value when Musk acquired Twitter and rebranded it as X, hinting that it would also become a payments platform that could integrate the OG meme coin.
However, things turned sour for Musk later that year, when an American man sued the billionaire along with Tesla and SpaceX for $258 billion for allegedly pumping Dogecoin — an asset that has “completely no value,” according to the initial filing.
But Musk and his lawyers won a victory this year when a judge sided with them and dismissed the case, calling the tech entrepreneur's tweets about Dogecoin "ambitious and bombastic," and noting that "no reasonable investor could have relied on them."
2024: Trump, Musk and DOGE
Dogecoin had a relatively quiet 2023, but the meme coin has surged in recent months after Musk endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump's White House campaign.
This was largely because Trump said Musk would lead a commission on government efficiency before being elected back to power; Musk announced that the department would be called the Department of Government Efficiency—an acronym that matches Dogecoin's stock ticker.
Whenever Musk mentions his future political role with DOGE ahead of the election, the price of Dogecoin skyrockets.
But in the wake of Trump's surprise election victory last week, Musk revealed what he's probably been thinking all along: that he doesn't really care about or participate in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or any other cryptocurrency. He just likes meme coins.
“I’m not really actively involved in crypto,” he said at a rally. “I make jokes and stuff about Dogecoin because I just like Dogecoin—because it has the best sense of humor and it has dogs and memes, and I like all that stuff.”
However, the price of Dogecoin has surged this week, reaching a three-year high of around $0.43. And late Tuesday, President-elect Trump finally officially announced that Musk, along with Bitcoin-savvy entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the new administration’s
Trump even sells T-shirts featuring him and Musk next to Doge-style artwork.
