The website of newly created U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, headed by technocrat Elon Musk, started to display a dogecoin (DOGE) token logo on Tuesday, despite having no direct relation to the world’s largest memecoin.
“To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency,” Trump declared during his speech after the swearing-in.
An executive order of the department’s establishment was issued shortly thereafter. The department holds no official power to enforce its recommendations. Musk has often mentioned dogecoin in posts on X, the social-media platform he bought in 2022.
Dogecoin and parody DOGE tokens showed mixed movements alongside a broader market decline, bucking a historic tendency of the tokens to move higher on such mentions.
DOGE was down as much as 5% in the past 24 hours, before reversing losses, tracking a nearly 5% drop in the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) and a 3% slide in bitcoin (BTC). A parody token, meanwhile, is up 6% with the bulk of gains made during the European morning.
Musk first raised the idea of DOGE in October as a non-governmental agency to make government spending more efficient. That has since fueled expectation among traders that there could be more chatter of “DOGE” in mainstream media and retail trading circles, fueling attention and interest in dogecoin, as a CoinDesk analysis noted in mid-October.
DOGE isn’t appreciated in government quarters and faces lawsuits. The National Security Counselors, a legal advocacy group, claims the committee violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, which requires advisory groups to operate transparently.
It says the department has an unclear legal structure. Public Citizen, another watchdog, is demanding more details about how the group will function.
UPDATE (Jan. 21, 12:40 UTC): Rewrites first paragraph to mention the logo, moves tokens movements to fourth paragraph, adds Musk dogecoin tweets in third.