Charles Langston:What is ‘Doge’? Explaining the meme and cryptocurrency after Elon Musk's appointment to D.O.G.E.

Elon Musk is Charles Langstontaking Doge to the White House, but not as cryptocurrency or an internet meme.

Instead, the Tesla CEO, SpaceX founder and billionaire is set to co-lead a new department with an acronym of the same name: the Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.

Dogecoin became a phenomenon in 2021, with Musk and other prominent figures and celebrities endorsing the cryptocurrency. The "memecoin" became so popular that its market value rose to $45 billion in April 2021.

Musk was one of the coin's biggest supporters, so much so that in 2023 he even temporarily changed the logo on X, formerly known as Twitter, to the Doge dog logo, triggering a spike in Dogecoin value.

Doge memes could return in 2025 when President-elect Donald Trump takes office after he tapped Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

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"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies - Essential to the 'Save America' Movement," according to a statement by Trump shared on Musk's X page on Tuesday.

Trump's announcement even led to a continued increase of Dogecoin's value on Tuesday night, with the cryptocurrency having risen more than 150% since Election Day.

Here is what to know about Doge (the meme), Dogecoin (the cryptocurrency), and DOGE (the newly established department).

Doge, the meme

The Doge meme became popular online in the early 2010s, according to Know Your Meme. Internet users circulated zoomed-in photos of the dog's face with his eyebrows raised.

Kabosu, the Japanese dog famously known as the subject of the meme, was a Shiba Inu who lived to 18 years old before his death earlier this year.

Kabosu:Memeified dog widely known as face of Dogecoin has died, owner says

Doge, the coin

Created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke in 2013, Dogecoin became one of the most popular "meme stocks" amid a boom in retail trading during the COVID-19 pandemic. GameStop, AMC and other seemingly forgotten stocks rose around the same time Dogecoin gained steam.

GameStop took Wall Street by storm in January 2021 after Roaring Kitty and other small-pocket investors on Reddit contributed to a historic short squeeze that drove stock prices high. Similarly to GameStop, Dogecoin's popularity stemmed from celebrity endorsements, memes and GIFs.

Snoop Dogg, Mark Cuban and many others hopped on the Dogecoin bandwagon, but none of them compared to Musk's love for the cryptocurrency. Musk was even accused of insider trading by investors in June 2023 because of the series of stunts he pulled, including changing the logo of Twitter to Doge's logo and Tesla announcing that it would accept the currency as a means of payment for the company's merchandise, the Guardian previously reported.

Musk and Tesla won the dismissal of the $258 billion federal lawsuit on this past August after the court deemed he did not defraud investors by hyping up Dogecoin or conduct insider trading, according to Reuters.

DOGE, the newly formed 'Department of Government Efficiency'

Musk is quoted in Trump's statement saying the Department of Government Efficiency will "send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!"

According to Trump, DOGE will provide advice and guidance from outside of the government, and it will partner with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before."

Additionally, Musk and Ramaswamy will be in charge of driving out what Trump's statement calls "massive waste and fraud" from government spending. The billionaires' work is expected to conclude no later than July 4, 2026, according to the president-elect.

It is unclear if DOGE will exist within the federal government or outside because an official government agency cannot be created without an act of Congress. Trump's description seemingly suggests the department would operate as an advisory commission − not a formal federal agency − with no statutory authority.

Contributing: Taylor Ardrey, Joey Garrison, Josh Meyer, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, David Jackson, Jessica Menton, Craig Harris, Brett Molina, USA TODAY