Dogecoin (DOGE) and parody DOGE tokens showed mixed moves alongside a broader market decline, even as Donald Trump officially unveiled a Department of Government Efficiency at his inauguration on Monday, bucking a historic trend of the tokens rising more with such mentions.
“To restore the competence and effectiveness of 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 establishing the department was issued shortly thereafter.
The department has no official power to enforce its recommendations and is led by technocrat Elon Musk. The website began displaying the dogecoin token logo on Tuesday, despite having no direct relation to the world’s largest memecoin.
DOGE was down as much as 5% in the past 24 hours, before reversing losses, following a nearly 5% drop in the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) and a 3% drop in bitcoin (BTC). Meanwhile, a parody token is up 6% with most of the gains coming during the European morning.
Musk first floated the idea of DOGE in October as a non-governmental agency to make public spending more efficient. This has since fueled expectations among traders that there could be more talk about “DOGE” in mainstream media and retail trading circles, fueling attention and interest in dogecoin, as a CoinDesk analysis noted at mid-October.
DOGE is not appreciated in the government sphere and faces lawsuits. The National Security Advisors, a legal advocacy group, say the committee violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, which requires advisory groups to operate transparently.
He says the department has an unclear legal structure. Public Citizen, another watchdog, is demanding more details about how the group will operate.
