OpinionAltcoins
|4 min ReadElon Musk and Dogecoin: The rise of the “Dogefather”
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
From internet joke to Musk-powered movement
Dogecoin started as a punchline in 2013. Developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer built it to mock the growing flood of altcoins. It ran quietly for years. Then Elon Musk showed up. In 2018, he asked Palmer on X to help fight Twitter bots impersonating him and pushing fake Ethereum giveaways. That was his first real brush with DOGE.
By April 2019, Musk turned the volume up. “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool,” he wrote, reacting to a Dogecoin poll about who should be “CEO.” The price jumped. DOGE’s market cap punched to roughly $400 million. Huobi listed the coin. Musk briefly called himself Dogecoin’s CEO on Twitter, kept asking if it was “really a valid form of currency,” and posted memes. The audience grew. The meme got teeth.
Bull run, SNL, and “to the moon”
The 2021 bull run put DOGE on the big stage. Coinbase Pro listed it. The cult spread into the mainstream. DOGE’s market cap surged past many S&P 500 names. Developers later said they had quietly worked with Musk since 2019 to make Dogecoin a viable payment option and a greener, cheaper alternative to Bitcoin.
Musk embraced the persona. He called himself the “Dogefather” ahead of a Saturday Night Live appearance. DOGE ripped to an all-time high near $0.73. The show underwhelmed true believers, and the price slipped, but Dogecoin’s cultural moment stuck. Later that year, Musk said SpaceX would launch a satellite to the moon funded entirely in DOGE. The joke coin kept rewriting the script.
Tesla payments, X speculation, lawsuits, and politics
In 2022, Tesla began accepting Dogecoin for merchandise. When Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, he hinted at payments and stoked hopes DOGE might be integrated. That same year, a U.S. plaintiff filed a $258 billion class action accusing Musk and his companies of pumping a coin with “no value at all.” In 2024, a federal judge dismissed the case, calling Musk’s statements “aspirational and puffery” and saying “no reasonable investor could rely upon them.”
DOGE woke up again in 2024 and 2025 as Musk backed Donald Trump’s White House run. Trump said Musk would lead a new government efficiency commission. Musk said the title would be the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE, of course. Each time the role came up, Dogecoin’s price popped. At a rally, Musk said he was not “actively involved” in crypto. “I just kind of like Dogecoin — because it’s got the best sense of humor and it has dogs and memes.” Still, DOGE hit a three-year high around $0.48 before slipping.
President-elect Trump later made the appointment official. The DOGE website flashed familiar meme imagery. Prices moved. Inside Washington, the new department made waves by aggressively probing federal spending and touching sensitive data. By May, it blew up. Musk exited the role. A very public rift followed. Musk made sharp claims about Trump. Trump fired back, said DOGE should scrutinize Musk’s companies, and floated the idea of deporting him. The feud weighed on DOGE, though drama-themed meme coins had brief spikes.
Meanwhile, product moves kept speculation alive. Nikita Bier, a Solana advisor and app builder, joined X as head of product, renewing chatter that X might add crypto payments and possibly DOGE. Another tie appeared in the background. Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro became chairman of CleanCore Solutions, which teamed with the Dogecoin Foundation’s House of Doge to form what is billed as an “official” Dogecoin treasury. The goal: accumulate DOGE and fund related ventures.
The Dogefather effect, still in play
Musk says he is not a crypto operator. He just likes the joke. Yet his words keep moving the market. From the 2019 “fav cryptocurrency” post to SNL, from Tesla merch to the government’s DOGE acronym, the pattern is clear. The audience follows. The chart reacts. If X ever rolls out payments that include DOGE, the story gets a new chapter. Until then, the Dogefather remains the meme coin’s most powerful amplifier. Tremendous reach.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.