{"id":49801,"date":"2025-09-30T09:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/elon-musk-and-dogecoin-how-the-billionaire-became-the-dogefather\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T02:33:10","slug":"elon-musk-and-dogecoin-how-the-billionaire-became-the-dogefather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/elon-musk-and-dogecoin-how-the-billionaire-became-the-dogefather\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk and Dogecoin: How the Billionaire Became the ‘Dogefather’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With <\/span>Dogecoin<\/span><\/a> making a comeback late last year and early into 2025<\/span>, some may be pondering: Where did the asset come from? What\u2019s it for? And what\u2019s Tesla CEO Elon Musk got to do with it?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The original meme coin\u2019s boom largely has the world\u2019s richest man to thank. Musk\u2019s obsession with shitposting helped boost the coin to a <\/span>top 10 cryptocurrency<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a wacky ride over the past few years, culminating in Musk’s appointment to lead a government agency called DOGE\u2014yes, really. But we’ll explain it all.<\/span><\/p>\n

2018: What the DOGE?<\/h2>\n

Dogecoin is the biggest and oldest meme coin and the second-biggest proof-of-work cryptocurrency. It was <\/span>created<\/span><\/a> in 2013 as a joke by developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea was to poke fun at the huge number of altcoins and crypto projects entering the market following Bitcoin\u2019s rapid ascent, and the coin enjoyed relative obscurity and a low price during its early years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But then along came Musk. The eccentric billionaire <\/span>asked<\/span><\/a> Palmer in a 2018 tweet to help with the Twitter bot problem. Scammers had created a number of fake high-profile accounts, <\/span>including Musk\u2019s<\/span><\/a>, in order to push crypto cons. The scams typically posted fake Ethereum giveaways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the first real interest Musk had shown in Dogecoin.<\/span><\/p>\n

2019: The pump begins<\/h2>\n

Musk started to pump Dogecoin the next year. \u201cDogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency,\u201d he <\/span>wrote in April<\/span><\/a> 2019, in response to a screenshot of a poll from the official Dogecoin account asking who should be the cryptocurrency\u2019s CEO. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The post would be the first of many to cause the asset\u2019s value to rocket upwards. Soon after Musk\u2019s first tweet about Dogecoin, the market cap of the coin hit $400 million and crypto exchange Huobi <\/span>listed<\/span><\/a> it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk being Musk, however, didn\u2019t stop there: He branded himself Dogecoin\u2019s CEO\u2014briefly\u2014on Twitter before continuing to fire out tweets <\/span>asking<\/span><\/a> if the coin is \u201creally a valid form of currency\u201d or posting <\/span>memes<\/span><\/a> associated with the original dog-coin.<\/span><\/p>\n

2020\/2021: Bull run arrives<\/h2>\n

Musk <\/span>continued to pump<\/span><\/a> Dogecoin\u2019s price here and there with his tweets, but things really got started during the 2021 bull run. Major exchanges like Coinbase Pro <\/span>listed Dogecoin<\/span><\/a> and the asset developed a bigger cult following, not to mention growing mainstream awareness.
<\/span><\/p>\n

DOGE gained a market cap bigger than many companies in the S&P 500. And developers exclusively told <\/span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i> that they had <\/span>secretly been working<\/span><\/a> with Musk since 2019 to make the coin a valid payment method and a greener, cheaper alternative to Bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n

But things got stranger when Musk <\/span>called himself<\/span><\/a> the \u201cDogefather\u201d ahead of a “Saturday Night Live” skit about the cryptocurrency\u2014again sending the asset\u2019s price roaring upwards. DOGE would jump to its all-time high price of about $0.73 at this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s “SNL” appearance ended up <\/span>being underwhelming<\/span><\/a> for Doge fans, with the SpaceX boss and his mother\u2019s allusions to the coin ultimately pushing its price down. Still, it continued to bring the strange world of meme coins to the mainstream.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that year, Musk <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> that his rocket company, SpaceX, would launch a satellite to the moon\u2014completely funded by the cryptocurrency.<\/span><\/p>\n

2022: Tesla\/Twitter mania<\/h2>\n

The Doge mania <\/span>continued<\/span><\/a> into 2022 when Musk\u2019s car company started accepting Dogecoin for merchandise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dogecoin continued to experience price bumps when Musk bought Twitter and <\/span>rebranded it to X<\/span><\/a>, hinting that it would also become a payments platform that might, eventually, <\/span>integrate<\/span><\/a> the O.G. meme coin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Things came back to bite Musk later that year, though, when an American man <\/span>hit<\/span><\/a> the billionaire and Tesla and SpaceX with a $258 billion lawsuit for allegedly pumping Dogecoin\u2014an asset with \u201cno value at all,\u201d according to the original filing.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Musk and his lawyers <\/span>scored a win<\/span><\/a> in 2024 when a judge sided with them and dismissed the lawsuit, calling the tech entrepreneur\u2019s tweets about Dogecoin \u201caspirational and puffery,\u201d and noting that \u201cno reasonable investor could rely upon them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

2024-2025: Trump, Musk, and DOGE<\/h2>\n

Dogecoin had a relatively quiet 2023, but the meme coin has soared over the last year<\/span>\u00a0following Musk\u2019s support of Republican Donald Trump\u2019s campaign for the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s mostly because Trump said that Musk would lead a government efficiency commission ahead of being voted back into the seat of power; Musk claimed that it would be called the Department of Government Efficiency<\/a>\u2014an acronym that matches Dogecoin\u2019s ticker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever Musk mentioned his future political role with the so-called DOGE ahead of the election, the price of Dogecoin jumped.<\/span><\/p>\n

But before Trump\u2019s election win, Musk revealed what he has probably thought all along: that he isn\u2019t seriously interested or involved in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or any cryptocurrency. He just likes the meme coin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually not actively involved in crypto,\u201d he <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> at a rally. \u201cI make Dogecoin jokes and stuff because I just kind of like Dogecoin\u2014because it\u2019s got the best sense of humor and it has dogs and memes, and I love all those things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, the price of Dogecoin boomed higher, hitting a three-year high price of $0.48\u2014though it’s fallen substantially since, as of this writing. Musk has recently praised Dogecoin’s rate of inflation<\/a> and tweeted out a familiar meme image of a dust cloud with the Doge face<\/a> engulfing a city.
<\/span><\/p>\n

And President-elect Trump made it official<\/a> that Musk would lead the administration’s new department, though planned co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy bailed in January<\/a> due to other political ambitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump even sold\u00a0t-shirts showing himself and Musk alongside Doge-esque artwork. And the official DOGE website briefly featured the familiar DOGE meme imagery, boosting Dogecoin’s price<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n

With Trump back in office, Musk’s DOGE started aggressively interrogating<\/a> U.S. government spending, grabbing headlines as it accesses potentially sensitive citizen data while upending professional norms in the process.<\/p>\n

But Musk departed the government role in May, and a public rift has formed between the two men. Musk made some shocking claims about Trump<\/a>, and the president has in return said that DOGE should scrutinize Musk’s companies<\/a>\u2014and that he’d look into having Musk deported.<\/p>\n

The public battle hasn’t done any favors for Dogecoin’s price, though it has briefly boosted meme coins<\/a> inspired by the conflict.<\/p>\n

Now Elon Musk is back to focusing on his companies, with recent moves reigniting speculation<\/a> over whether X might integrate Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies for payments.<\/p>\n

And Musk has picked up another connection to Dogecoin of late, albeit unofficially.<\/p>\n

Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro\u2014who helped defend him in the $258 billion class action DOGE suit dismissed last year\u2014is now chairman of CleanCore Solutions, a publicly traded firm billed as an “official” Dogecoin treasury company<\/a>. That’s due to backing from House of Doge, the commercialization arm of the Dogecoin Foundation, which supports development around the coin.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on November 13, 2024. It was last updated with new details on September 28, 2025.<\/i><\/p>\n

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