Elon Musk and Dogecoin: How the Billionaire Became a ‘Doge Father’

as a Dogecoin He comes back from behind BitcoinConfused, some may be wondering: Where did the property come from? for what And what does Tesla CEO Elon Musk have to do with it?

The main meme coin's growth has the world's richest man largely to thank. Musk's obsession with posting shit has helped push Coin to a. Top 10 cryptocurrency.

It's been a bumpy ride over the past few years for Musk, who ended his tenure as head of a government agency called DOGE — yes, really. But we will explain everything.

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2018: What is DOGE?

Dogecoin is the largest and oldest cryptocurrencies and the second largest proof-of-work cryptocurrency. has been. It was created A 2013 comic by developers Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer.

The idea was to poke fun at the myriad of altcoins and crypto projects entering the market following Bitcoin's rapid rise, and the coin was relatively obscure and undervalued in its early years.

But then came Musk. Eccentric billionaire he asked Palmer on Twitter in 2018 to help with the Twitter bot problem. Fraudsters have created several fake high-profile accounts. including the maskTo push crypto cons. The scams typically post fake Ethereum giveaways.

It was the first real interest Musk showed in Dogecoin.

2019: The pump starts

Musk started mining Dogecoin the following year. “Dogecoin is probably my favorite cryptocurrency,” he said. He wrote in April In the year 2019, a screenshot from the official Dogecoin account in response to a poll asking who should be the cryptocurrency's CEO. “That's great.”

The post will be the first of many to send property prices soaring. Shortly after Musk first announced Dogecoin, the coin's market cap reached $400 million and crypto exchange Huobi Listed. is it.

But Musk being Musk didn't stop there: he named himself Dogecoin's CEO—for short—on Twitter before continuing to fire off tweets. to ask If the coin is a “virtual form of money” or a label A memory Associated with the first dog coin.

2020/2021: The bull run has arrived

Musk Pump continues Dogecoin price tweets here and there, but things really kicked off during the 2021 bull run. Major exchanges like Coinbase Pro Dogecoin is listed And the property has developed a huge cult following, not to mention the growing awareness of the original.

DOGE has more market capitalization than most companies in the S&P 500. And the developers said it exclusively Decrypt they had He was working in secret With field to make the coin a valid payment method and a greener, cheaper option from 2019.

But things have gotten weird under Musk He called himself The “Doge Father” on the front of “Saturday Night Live” about cryptocurrency — again sending asset prices skyrocketing. DOGE jumps to a high price of $0.73 this time.

Musk's “SNL” appearance is over Being boring For Doge fans, the coin's quotes with the SpaceX boss and his mother have finally brought the price down. Still, he continued to bring weird meme coins into the mainstream.

Later that year, Musk announced Like his rocket company SpaceX will launch a satellite to the moon – funded entirely by cryptocurrency.

2022: Tesla / Twitter Mania

Doge Mania He continued In the year When Musk's car company starts accepting Dogecoin for merchandise in 2022.

Dogecoin continues to surge in value as Musk buys Twitter. They renamed it to X.It hints that it will eventually become a possible payment platform. Combine OG meme coin.

Things came to bite Musk later that year when he was an American man hit The billionaire and Tesla and SpaceX have been sued for $258 billion for dumping Dogecoin, a “worthless” asset, according to the original filing.

But Musk and his lawyers He scored a victory This year, a judge sided with him and dismissed the lawsuit, calling the tech entrepreneur's tweets about Dogecoin “ambitious and outrageous” and saying “no reasonable investor could rely on them.”

2024: Trump, Musk and DOGE

Dogecoin had a relatively quiet 2023, but the meme coin has surged in recent months. Following Musk's endorsement of Republican Donald Trump's campaign for the White House.

That's largely because Trump said he would lead the Commission on Government Efficiency before Muck was voted back into office. Musk said the department would be called the Department of Government Efficiency—an acronym that matches the Dogecoin symbol.

Every time Mook talked about his future political role with the so-called DOGE before the election, Dogecoin's price jumped.

But before Trump's shocking election win, Musk revealed what he probably thought: He has little interest in or involvement in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or any other cryptocurrency. He just likes meme coins.

“I'm not really active in crypto he said. At a rally. “I do Dogecoin jokes and stuff because it's like Dogecoin — it's got great humor and it's got dogs and memes and I love all that stuff.”

Still, the price of Dogecoin has rallied in recent weeks, hitting a three-year high of $0.48—which it had fallen to at the time of writing. Musk recently praised Dogecoin's inflation and tweeted a classic image of a dust cloud engulfing a city of Doge's face.

And President-elect Trump has announced that Musk will lead the new administration along with bitcoin savvy entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The leaders laid out big plans for the DOGE department, planning budget cuts and mass shooting tips for the agency, and headed to Capitol Hill to discuss with lawmakers.

Trump is selling T-shirts featuring himself and Musk alongside Doge-esque artwork.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on November 13, 2024. It was last updated with new details on December 21st.