Author: Zen, PANews
On November 13, Beijing time, US President-elect Trump announced on his "Truth Social" platform that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He compared the department's responsibilities and mission to the Manhattan Project during World War II and described it as a core part of the "Save America" campaign.
DOGE's main goal is to significantly reduce "waste and fraud" in the US government's $6.5 trillion annual budget. The department is expected to operate independently. But it will work extensively with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to guide structural reforms. In the announcement, Trump confidently stated that he expects the United States to "become a smaller, more efficient, and less bureaucratic government" by July 4, 2026 (the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States).
Since Trump's victory, his top supporter Musk has become the second biggest winner after Trump himself. Not only has his assets increased significantly, firmly occupying the throne of the world's richest man, but also closely related cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin (DOGE) (for the sake of distinction, all DOGEs are referred to as "Dogecoin" below), Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE, hereinafter referred to as abbreviations), and X Empire (X) with Trump as the theme have taken off.
According to CoinMarketCap data, as of November 14, Dogecoin has risen by more than 107% in the past week, reaching a high of nearly $0.43 at 5 p.m. on November 12, reaching its highest point in more than three years. In addition, Musk has been using his personal influence to spread the story of Peanut, a popular squirrel who was euthanized. Musk's comment that "America was saved by a squirrel and meme coins" also led to a rapid rise in Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), whose price has soared from around $0.01 on November 7 to $2.02, with a market value of over $2 billion.
However, after the announcement of the establishment of the Ministry of Government Efficiency, although Musk continued to post messages or interact with people on X about this "good news", and claimed: "We finally have the power to delete those cumbersome regulations that are not conducive to the public interest", and there were countless calls on X that $1 was just around the corner, Dogecoin did not continue its previous high-pitched rising sentiment, and only fluctuated around $0.4. The DOGE token, which was launched in August this year and has a smaller market value, doubled in price in less than 12 hours, and its market value has exceeded $450 million .
“Carefully planned” DOGE
On August 13 this year, Trump and Musk live-broadcasted on the X platform. The combination of the two top politicians and businessmen attracted great attention from the world. "I think we need a government efficiency committee to judge where we spend money reasonably and where we spend money irrationally?" Musk suggested to Trump during the live broadcast, saying "we need to live within our means."
A few days later, Musk posted a photo on the X platform that looked like it was generated by artificial intelligence. In the photo, he stood at a podium marked "Department of Government Efficiency" and wrote "I am willing to serve". This was the first time that the department was formally proposed. The acronym Musk named for this special agency happened to be DOGE, indicating that he seemed to intend to link his new role in politics with the cryptocurrency he started.
However, as the crypto market is in a downturn at this time, the presidential election is still undecided. Therefore, Musk's "selling" did not receive much response from the market, and the price of Dogecoin did not rise significantly. Cryptocurrency KOL @IncomeSharks also commented below: "Elon's tweets about $DOGE no longer even affect the price."
In early September, Trump publicly agreed to Musk's request. Among the series of new economic plans he announced, one of them was to establish a government efficiency commission. He said that once he was re-elected to the White House, Musk would lead the commission, which would be responsible for conducting a comprehensive financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and proposing major reform recommendations.
However, in the announcement just released by Trump, he actively cooperated with Musk and changed the name of the department to DOGE. It should be pointed out that DOGE is not an official government department. Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will provide "advice and guidance" to the White House outside the government. It is not clear how the organization will operate. It may be governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which stipulates how external groups that provide advice to the government must operate and be accountable to the public.
It is worth mentioning that Vivek, another leader of the department and former presidential candidate, is considered one of the biggest contributors to Trump and the Republican Party's shift in their stance on cryptocurrencies. He has been advising Trump on Bitcoin and digital assets since January this year, and his influence in the core circle is growing. Vivek has also proposed that the US dollar should be backed by a basket of commodities, and over time, Bitcoin should perhaps be included.
New institutions may have a negative impact on DOGE tokens?
Considering Musk’s strong support for DOGE as a meme and asset, the industry generally believes that his involvement in DOGE may be a good sign for memecoin and even the cryptocurrency industry. In recent days, Musk’s frequent interactions with DOGE-related tweets on X seem to confirm this.
However, many people believe that Musk’s move may have a negative impact on Dogecoin. Freelance journalist Connor Sephton said in an article that after reading endless reports about the DOGE department, he believes that this may eventually be a catastrophic blow to the popularity of Dogecoin. Because if the government project gains brand awareness and is widely reported, it may drown out the exposure of Dogecoin.
"Musk posts countless posts to his 204 million followers every day, sometimes about X, sometimes about SpaceX. There are some bad jokes, or some false information. But in recent months, there has been almost no mention of cryptocurrency, and there will be even less in the future." Sephton said that Musk is transforming from a person who jokes about X to a person who directly affects world events and the lives of millions of Americans. Although Musk's new role is positioned as an external role in the government, he is extremely valued by the president, and his call with Ukrainian President Zelensky together with Trump also confirms this.
Sephton further added: "If you peel back the layers of Musk, it's easy to see why he was so fascinated by Dogecoin in the first place: he wanted influence. The fact that he could change the market with a single sentence was fascinating to him." He believes that Musk's influence has now reached its peak, which means that he can now focus on a bigger goal: power. The Department of Government Efficiency marks the beginning of his political ambitions, and he will inevitably want to gain more influence in the coming months and years. And all of this means that DOGE, the cryptocurrency, is now pretty redundant to Musk, and he will leave these things aside and focus on the next big thing.
In addition, many people are worried about whether DOGE, led by Musk, can play an active role in the Trump administration. Pessimistically speaking, if the agency ends up being "infamous", Dogecoin itself may also be affected. Its appointment has been criticized by Citizens for Public Interest, a progressive consumer rights NGO that has questioned several policies of Trump's first term. "Not only does Musk know nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own business often violates the rules he is about to crack down on," co-chair Lisa Gilbert said in a statement.
Ulrich Leuchtmann, head of foreign exchange and commodity research at Commerzbank, is also not optimistic about DOGE's prospects. He even believes that it will have disastrous consequences for the US economy: "Musk does not believe in a gradual and cautious approach. I don't believe he can take a wise step. Some people will say that their suggestions will only be suggestions, and the president and Congress will be in front when it comes to actual implementation. But if the suggestions will not be implemented, why set up such an institution? The president will appear indecisive, which is exactly what Trump does not want to see."
