Author: @Web3 Mario
The MEME ecosystem has been very hot recently, so the author has also continued to follow 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 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, with some insights, and hopes to share them 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.
Reviewing the development history of DOGE, traffic is the driving force for MEME's rise
Let's briefly review 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 just wanted 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, Dogecoin has no supply limit. The initial design was to avoid long-term holders hoarding the currency. From a technical perspective, Dogecoin did not undergo 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.
Dogecoin's development has largely benefited from its strong community support. In early 2014, the Dogecoin community raised funds through crowdfunding to help the Jamaican bobsled team participate in the Sochi Winter Olympics. Such events gave Dogecoin a lot of media exposure in the early stage, making it a symbol of Internet culture.
In addition, Dogecoin 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 demonstrated the potential of Dogecoin 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 Dogecoin also rose for a time, although it was unable to match the growth of 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 seen as an outdated marginal currency. Until 2020, the fate of Dogecoin underwent a major turning point. Elon Musk became its most famous supporter, and his multiple tweets mentioned Dogecoin, calling it "the people's crypto" and referring to himself as the "DogeFather". Whenever Musk tweets in support of Dogecoin, its price will experience violent fluctuations.
In April 2021, Musk even tweeted the famous "Barking at the Moon" Doge image, and the price of Dogecoin reached a new historical high, breaking $0.70. After that, in May 2021, although the market once sold off Dogecoin after Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, its popularity did not diminish, and the community's support for it became even stronger. Of course, in the subsequent development, although Tesla did not accept Dogecoin as a payment, SpaceX announced that it would accept Dogecoin for payment of certain services, further enhancing the mainstream application scenarios of Dogecoin.
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 brand new political career with the return of Trump, which will bring new traffic potential - political traffic - to DOGE. 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, the establishment of a department called the "Department of Government Efficiency", or D.O.G.E. for short, which is an initiative he launched with former President Donald Trump, aimed at conducting a comprehensive financial audit of the federal government and making recommendations to reduce waste, fraud and unnecessary spending. Trump announced the 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 later even posted a picture expressing his willingness to serve, which also demonstrated his intention. Since then, the KOLs in the Doge section have started to hype up this topic. Trump also responded positively, announcing in 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 poor handling of hurricane relief, the vice president's Harris team, as the ruling party, was greatly affected, and the support for both sides also underwent a huge reversal. Therefore, the Trump trade also began to regain momentum, which is why BTC broke out of the bloodsucking trend last week.
And just this week, on October 17, Musk discussed the D.O.G.E. plan again at a town hall in Pennsylvania. We know that Pennsylvania is an extremely important swing state, and as the election enters the final moments, the attention it receives 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 the first term was unusually difficult was 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, and after the "email gate" incident was exposed, a group of establishment traditional 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 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.
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, and 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, which will certainly provide a good exposure opportunity for Doge. Therefore, I believe that Doge will be a must-watch hot spot in the crypto currency industry's Trump trade, and I will also keep an eye on it.
