Then came Elon. His involvement ramped up from casual tweets in 2019 to becoming the unofficial “Doge Father.” His SNL gig in May 2021 was peak chaos – Hyping DOGE one minute, calling it a “hustle” the next, and triggering a massive price dump from its all-time high.

In February, the DOGE agency’s website briefly showed Dogecoin’s famous Shiba Inu mascot, leading many to wonder if Musk’s crypto favorite was going mainstream. The confusion wasn’t entirely misplaced — the Department of Government Efficiency shares its acronym, DOGE, with Dogecoin, fueling speculation that the two were connected.