DOGE’s new value cycle: political traffic potential and Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (D.O.G.E.) political career

Author: @Web3Mario

Abstract: Recently, the MEME ecosystem is very hot, so the author continues to pay attention to and study related knowledge. Last week, many MEMEs have achieved several times or even dozens of times of growth, but most of the stories I saw and heard are still large losses. Therefore, before the narration, I still hope that everyone will remain rational when participating, and must do a good job of risk control, strictly implement trading strategies, and must not be overwhelmed by survivor bias. Back to the topic, when studying the MEME track, the author started with DOGE, the leader of such projects, and found that DOGE is experiencing some interesting things recently. I have some experience and hope to share it with you. In general, affected by the increasing possibility of Musk's political career, DOGE is absorbing new traffic potential-political traffic. Therefore, the upcoming election results may bring DOGE a new value cycle.

Looking back at the history of DOGE, traffic is the driving force behind the rise of MEME

Let's first take a brief look at the history of DOGE's development. Dogecoin was co-created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in December 2013, inspired by the then popular "Doge" Shiba Inu meme. Initially, the founders created this lighthearted, community-driven token just to satirize the market hype of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It was developed to make cryptocurrencies more "friendly" and "approachable", in contrast to the technical and financial nature of Bitcoin.

Unlike Bitcoin's total of 21 million coins, Dogecoin has no supply cap. It was originally designed to prevent long-term holders from hoarding currency. From a technical perspective, Dogecoin did not make major innovations in the first few years of its development, and the core protocol is very similar to Litecoin. However, its simplicity and community-driven culture provide it with a certain market foundation.

Dogecoin's development is largely due to its strong community support. In early 2014, the Dogecoin community raised funds for the Jamaican bobsleigh team through crowdfunding to help it participate in the Sochi Winter Olympics. Such events gave Dogecoin a lot of media exposure in its early stages and became an Internet cultural symbol.

In addition, Dogecoin is also used for other charity projects, such as water well construction projects in Africa and sponsorship activities for NASCAR driver Josh Wise. Although these events demonstrated the potential of Dogecoin as a payment tool, its price remained relatively low for a long time because it was still regarded as a "joke" currency.

Back in 2017, as the cryptocurrency market exploded, the price of Dogecoin also rose, although it failed to compare with the increase in mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, the cryptocurrency winter after 2018 caused the price of Dogecoin to fall back, and it was once regarded as an outdated marginal currency. It was not until the beginning of 2020 that the fate of Dogecoin changed significantly. Elon Musk became its most famous supporter. He mentioned Dogecoin in several tweets, calling it "the people's crypto" and calling himself "DogeFather". Whenever Musk tweeted in support of Dogecoin, its price would fluctuate violently.

In April 2021, Musk even tweeted the famous "moon-barking" dog picture, and the price of Dogecoin reached a record high, breaking through $0.70. In May 2021, after Musk hosted the Saturday Night Live show, although the market sold off Dogecoin for a while, its popularity remained unchanged and the community's support for it became stronger. Of course, in the subsequent development, although Tesla did not accept Dogecoin payments, SpaceX announced that it would accept Dogecoin for payment of certain services, further enhancing the mainstream application scenarios of Dogecoin.

Therefore, we found that the main source of traffic in the current DOGE ecosystem is undoubtedly Musk, so it is very likely that his new political career will be accompanied by Trump's return, which will bring new traffic potential to DOGE-political traffic. And the nearly 30% increase in DOGE last week was a response to this background.

With a weekly increase of nearly 30%, Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" and DOGE's political traffic potential

In fact, this stems from Musk's political initiative to set up a "Department of Government Efficiency", referred to as D.O.G.E., which is an initiative he and former President Donald Trump jointly launched to conduct a comprehensive financial audit of the federal government and make recommendations to reduce waste, fraud and unnecessary spending. Trump announced the plan in a speech in New York, which is based on Musk's suggestions on X. Musk said he was willing to participate in the plan and would not ask for any compensation or title, emphasizing his determination to simplify government operations.

And the origin of the name D.O.G.E. does come from the DOGE community. Musk responded to @Sir Doge Of the coin on the official X account on August 20. This name should have provided inspiration for the design of the department name.

Then he sent a picture of his willingness to serve, which indeed showed his intention. Since then, KOLs in the Doge section have begun to hype the topic. Trump also responded positively to this. On September 6, he announced in a speech at the New York Economic Club that if elected president, he would co-found a government efficiency committee with Musk, which was equivalent to a formal positive response to D.O.G.E.

At that time, the election results were in a state of anxiety, so the potential impact of the proposal was not magnified. However, after entering October, due to the ineffective handling of hurricane disaster relief, the team of Vice President Harris, as the ruling party, was greatly affected, and the support rates of both parties also reversed greatly. Therefore, Trump's trading began to regain popularity, which is why BTC went out of the blood-sucking market last week.

Just this week, Musk discussed the D.O.G.E. plan again in his speech at the Pennsylvania City Hall on October 17. We know that Pennsylvania, as an extremely important swing state, has received unprecedented attention when the election entered the final moments, so any political propaganda activities will gain great exposure, which is also the core reason for the 30% increase in DOGE.

So first let's analyze whether Musk is likely to go into politics, or is it just a gimmick for election hype. I think it is very likely that Musk will go into politics. We know that in this US election, Musk is fully fired up and firmly supports Trump. In addition to acquiring Twitter and using it to break the Democratic Party's monopoly on the propaganda advantage of the mainstream media in the United States, and donating heavily to the Trump campaign team, he is also actively involved in the field, using X as a position to promote his support for Trump. Trump also has a very positive evaluation of this, and has repeatedly expressed in media interviews that he hopes to invite Musk to politics, join the cabinet or serve as an advisor.

Friends who know about Trump's last term may know that the reason why Trump's first term seemed extremely difficult was due to the betrayal of his early political allies, which greatly affected his governance efficiency. We know that the main reason why Trump's first term election was successful was the self-exposure of the establishment Hillary. After the "email gate" incident was exposed, a group of traditional establishment politicians turned to the populist Trump in order to avoid being affected. As a political novice, Trump needed the support of some establishment people with political backgrounds at that time to help him govern smoothly. However, after the election was successful, since the core interests of the establishment were based on globalization, including the military-industrial complex, new technology, multinational asset management, etc., it was obviously contrary to populism. Therefore, after successfully avoiding disaster, the establishment people drew a clear line with Trump. In this election, Trump has accumulated enough political background on the one hand, and has also learned lessons from the last round. In the selection of political allies, he has extremely avoided interference from the traditional establishment. This is why the young Pence was chosen as the vice presidential candidate. Therefore, in the formulation of economic policies, it is very likely to choose a new political novice and Musk with a wide influence.

If the "Government Efficiency Department" can be successfully implemented, its proposition of streamlining government departments is an extremely important part of Trump's "small government" proposition, and it will definitely receive great attention. We know that the essence of MEME is traffic, and this event will inevitably allow DOGE to obtain a new traffic capture channel-political traffic. Imagine in January 2025. The U.S. Government Efficiency Department (D.O.G.E.) initiated a 30% layoff in government departments, which will inevitably provide DOGE with a good exposure opportunity. Therefore, I think DOGE will be a hot spot that Trump's transactions in the cryptocurrency industry cannot ignore, and I will keep paying attention.