Author:@Web3Mario
Abstract: The MEME ecosystem has been very hot recently, so the author has also continued to pay attention to and study the relevant knowledge. Last week, many MEME projects achieved several times or even dozens of times the increase, but the stories I have seen and heard are mostly huge losses. Therefore, before narrating, I still hope that everyone will maintain rationality when participating, do a good job in risk control, strictly implement the trading strategy, and definitely do not be confused by the survivor bias. Back to the topic, when studying the MEME track, the author started from the leader of such projects, Doge, and found that Doge is experiencing some interesting things recently, and has some insights, hoping to share with everyone. In general, affected by the increased possibility of Musk's entry into politics, Doge is absorbing new traffic potential - political traffic. Therefore, the upcoming election results may usher in a new value cycle for Doge.
Review the development history of Doge, traffic is the driving force for the rise of MEME
Let's briefly review the history of Doge's development. Doge was co-created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in December 2013, inspired by the then-popular "Doge" Shiba Inu meme. Initially, the founders were just trying to satirize the market hype of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and created this relaxed, community-driven token. Its development purpose is to make cryptocurrencies more "friendly" and "approachable", in contrast to the technicality and financiality of Bitcoin.
Unlike Bitcoin's total supply of 21 million, Doge has no supply limit. The initial design was to avoid long-term holders hoarding the currency. From a technical point of view, Doge did not make major innovations in the first few years of its development, and its core protocol is very similar to Litecoin. However, its simplicity and community-driven culture have provided it with a certain market foundation.
Doge's development has largely benefited from its strong community support. In early 2014, the Doge community raised funds through crowdfunding to help the Jamaican bobsled team participate in the Sochi Winter Olympics. Such events have gained Doge a lot of media exposure in the early stage, making it a symbol of Internet culture.
In addition, Doge has also been used for other charitable projects, such as funding water well projects in Africa and sponsoring NASCAR driver Josh Wise. Although these events have demonstrated the potential of Doge as a payment tool, its price has remained relatively low for a long time, as it is still seen as a "joke" currency.
Tracing back to 2017, with the outbreak of the cryptocurrency market, the price of Doge also rose for a time, although it was not comparable to the increase of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, the cryptocurrency winter after 2018 has caused the price of Doge to fall back, and it has once been regarded as an outdated marginal currency. Until 2020, the fate of Doge has undergone a major turning point. Elon Musk has become its most famous supporter, and his multiple tweets mentioning Doge, calling it "the people's crypto" and calling himself the "DogeFather". Whenever Musk tweets in support of Doge, its price will experience violent fluctuations.
In April 2021, Musk even tweeted the famous "Barking at the Moon" Doge image, and the price of Doge reached a new historical high of over $0.70. After that, in May 2021, although the market once sold off Doge after Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, its popularity did not diminish, and the community's support for it became stronger. Of course, in the subsequent development, although Tesla did not accept Doge payments, SpaceX announced that it would accept Doge for payment of certain services, further enhancing the mainstream application scenarios of Doge.
Therefore, we find that the main source of traffic in the current Doge ecosystem is undoubtedly Musk, and it is very likely that it will usher in a new political traffic potential with the return of Trump and the opening of his new political career. The nearly 30% increase in Doge last week was a response to this background.
A weekly increase of nearly 30%, Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" and the political traffic potential of Doge
In fact, this stems from Musk's political initiative, that is, the establishment of a department called the "Department of Government Efficiency", or D.O.G.E. for short. This plan was jointly initiated by him and former President Donald Trump, with the aim of conducting a comprehensive financial audit of the federal government and proposing recommendations to reduce waste, fraud and unnecessary spending. Trump announced this plan during a speech in New York, based on Musk's suggestion on X. Musk said he is willing to participate in this plan and will not demand any compensation or title, emphasizing his determination to simplify government operations.
The name D.O.G.E. is indeed derived from the Doge community. Musk replied to @Sir Doge Of the coin on his official X account on August 20, and this name should have inspired the naming of the department.
He has also issued a picture expressing his willingness to serve, which also demonstrates his intention. Since then, the KOLs of the Doge section have started to hype this topic. Trump also responded positively, announcing during a speech at the New York Economic Club on September 6 that if elected president, he would co-create a government efficiency commission with Musk, which is equivalent to a positive response to D.O.G.E.
At that time, the election results were in a state of tension, so the potential impact of this proposal was not amplified. However, after entering October, due to the ineffectiveness in dealing with hurricane relief, the vice president's team of the ruling party, Harris, was greatly affected, and the support rates of both sides also underwent a huge reversal. Therefore, the Trump trade has also begun to regain popularity, which is why BTC has seen a bloodsucking trend last week.
And just this week, on October 17, Musk discussed the D.O.G.E. plan again during a town hall in Pennsylvania. We know that Pennsylvania is an extremely important swing state, and the attention it receives in the final moments of the election is unprecedented, so any political propaganda activities will gain huge exposure, which is also the core reason for the 30% increase in Doge.
So first, let's analyze whether Musk is likely to enter politics, or is it just an election hype gimmick. I think Musk's entry into politics is very likely. We know that in this US election, Musk has gone all out, firmly supporting Trump, in addition to acquiring Twitter and thus breaking the Democratic Party's monopoly on the propaganda advantage of the mainstream media, he has also actively participated, using X as a platform to promote his support for Trump. Trump has also expressed great positive evaluation of this, and has also expressed in media interviews that he hopes to invite Musk to enter politics, serve in the cabinet or as an advisor.
Those who are familiar with Trump's previous term may know that the reason why Trump's governance in his first term was unusually difficult is due to the defection of his early political allies, which greatly affected his governance efficiency. We know that the main reason for Trump's success in the first term election was the self-explosion of the establishment's Hillary, after the "email gate" incident was exposed, a group of traditional establishment politicians defected to the populist Trump in order to avoid being affected, and because Trump was a political novice at the time, he precisely needed the support of some establishment politicians with political background to help him govern smoothly. However, after the election was successful, since the core interests of the establishment are based on globalization, including the military-industrial complex, new technology, and transnational asset management, which are obviously at odds with populism, the establishment quickly distanced themselves from Trump after avoiding disaster. In this election, on the one hand, Trump has accumulated enough political background, and on the other hand, he has also learned from the previous lesson, and is extremely avoiding the interference of the traditional establishment in the choice of political allies. This is why he chose the young Pence as the vice presidential candidate. Therefore, in the formulation of economic policies, it is highly likely that he will choose a new political novice with wide influence, such as Musk.
So if the "Government Efficiency Department" can be successfully implemented, its proposal to streamline government departments will be a very important part of Trump's "small government" proposal and will certainly receive great attention, and we know that the essence of MEME is traffic, this incident will certainly provide Doge with a new traffic capture channel - political traffic. Imagine in January 2025, the U.S. Government Efficiency Department (D.O.G.E) initiates a 30% reduction in government departments, this will certainly provide a good exposure opportunity for Doge. Therefore, I believe that Doge will be an unavoidable hot spot in the crypto currency industry's Trump trade, and I will also keep an eye on it.
