Crypto
Elon Musk's Dumb History With the 'Doge' Meme His Govt. Office Is Named After
In a historic and embarrassing first, an old Reddit meme may become an actual government agency in Donald Trump‘s second term as president, thanks to Elon Musk. Months before Trump’s reelection, the Tesla CEO and Trump megadonor was riffing on X (formerly Twitter) about a possible administration role in something he called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. On Tuesday, the president-elect announced he was making that dream a reality, appointing Musk, along with businessman and failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead an agency of that very name, which would “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy.”
With that action, Trump turned a more than decade-old meme into a bizarre and powerfully consequential reality for U.S. politics.
By internet standards, “doge” is an ancient artifact. In 2013, photos of Kabosu, a female Shiba Inu owned by a Japanese kindergarten teacher, started going viral on Reddit, typically with rainbow Comic Sans text that suggested the inner monologue of the dog — or “doge,” as a playful misspelling had it.
A cryptocurrency is born
That same year, two software designers had the idea to parody bitcoin, then gaining traction as the first decentralized cryptocurrency, with a joke coin that would feature the doge meme as its logo: Dogecoin, with the market code DOGE. Despite their satirical intentions, the currency found a dedicated community, which outlived the popularity of the cutesy meme itself, although it long traded at well under a cent. Still, the crypto bubble of 2017-2018 saw a surge in trading and drove the value of the coin to a new peak, and by 2019, Musk himself was tweeting about it. “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency,” he posted that April. “It’s pretty cool.”
From that point forward, Dogecoin’s fluctuations were unmistakably entangled with Musk’s comments on it. He holds an unspecified amount of the cryptocurrency — with some even speculating that he’s a “whale” who has bought up a huge percentage of the total coins in circulation — and routinely interacts with its main promoters online. The summer of 2020 saw another DOGE buying spree, encouraged by TikTok hype, but the coin really exploded during the GameStop “meme stock” craze of January 2021. Encouraged by tweets and memes from Musk (as well as Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons), investors pushed it to a new high of $0.08 that February. Musk declared it “the people’s crypto.”
It continued to surge through April and hit an all-time high of $0.74 in May 2021, when Musk hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and hawked the currency on Weekend Update — while admitting that crypto was a “hustle.” The price of Dogecoin fell significantly during and after the show. The same week, Musk announced that SpaceX would fund a moon mission entirely with Dogecoin. (That launch has been indefinitely delayed.) Musk continued to spam Twitter with Dogecoin memes and inane posts related to the currency, once typing out the lyrics to the children’s song “Baby Shark” as “Baby Doge, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.” He also indicated that he had purchased some DOGE for his young son, X Æ A-Xii, and hinted that Tesla might start accepting the currency — it eventually did, though only for merchandise, and the option was later discontinued. Tesla has yet to accept payment for a car in Dogecoin.
After Dogecoin fell back to earth, hitting $0.07 in June 2022, Musk faced a lawsuit for $258 billion from investors who accused him of orchestrating a pyramid scheme by manipulating the price with his tweets, public comments, and the SNL appearance, arguing that these all contributed to a 36,000 percent increase in price before the crash. This complaint was amended several times in the following years to account for other Musk stunts — including the time in April 2023, when, as the new owner of Twitter, he briefly changed the site’s bird logo to the most recognized photo of the “doge” Shiba Inu. That little joke sent Dogecoin 30 percent higher. In August 2024, a judge finally dismissed the investors’ suit, calling Musk’s support of the meme coin “aspirational” rather than “factual.”
Elon pivots to Trump
By August, Musk was pumping millions of dollars into a Super PAC with the goal of electing Trump and attaining greater influence in Washington. He happened to be aligned with major crypto evangelists, who backed Trump in the belief that he would loosen regulations on the industry. It was at this critical point in the campaign that a Dogecoin enthusiast suggested on X that Musk’s role under a Trump administration should be in the “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).” Musk replied, “That is the perfect name.”
It appears the Trump team agreed, or at least acquiesced to the request as they began preparations to assume the White House. Following the election, Dogecoin predictably spiked again — along with other crypto assets — climbing from $0.15 before Trump’s win to as high as $0.44 when the DOGE agency became official on Tuesday morning. Musk has expressed his own enthusiasm about the “merch” DOGE will sell and vowed: “All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency.” Given his record of broken promises, this one seems unlikely to be fulfilled. Musk previously declared that major changes to the X platform would always be voted on by users, only to do away with such polls and push whatever updates he wanted.
The silliness of the doge meme, and the cult cryptocurrency it spawned, belies the potential damage Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could wreak on the political infrastructure of the U.S. Musk has spoken publicly about wanting to massively slash federal spending, admitting this would “involve some temporary hardship.”
While some observers have suggested that Trump is giving Musk a meaningless commission — or busywork that he cannot screw up — the world’s richest man has been participating in key meetings and diplomatic phone calls alongside Trump since Election Day. And if Republicans were to try to enact, say, major cuts to social programs, like Social Security, it could help them politically to rely on recommendations from a body or commission like this one.
Musk’s possible future in the government
Then there’s the possiblity that, if Musk helms this department as an outside commission instead of an official government agency, he can likely avoid divesting from his various companies, which have significant government contracts and are also facing regulatory scrutiny on many fronts. By taking on this role, he will be free to preserve, protect, and boost his corporate interests, potentially by hobbling the federal agencies probing his businesses. The Department of Justice, for example, has spent the past two years investigating Tesla’s dubious claims about its “Full-Self Driving” technology. Between his DOGE job and a likely ally in prospective Attorney General Matt Gaetz, Musk may be in a position to make this costly headache go away.
All of which makes for a strange and alarming new phase of the “doge” phenomenon. Once a harmless image celebrating our love of adorable furry friends, it is now the face of an impending assault on the government institutions that enforce financial and labor laws, keep our food and drinking water safe, manage the U.S. education system and conserve natural resources. This, in turn, is spurring a cryptocurrency boom that could cost investors tens of thousands of dollars if it turns into another bubble. It doesn’t seem fair that a beloved Shiba Inu should come to represent such political and economic dysfunction, but when Musk wrests control of something — whether a company, a presidential campaign, or a meme — he doesn’t often let go.
Crypto
Cryptocurrency News: Pepeto Nears Exchange Listing while the Cardano Price Prediction Could Flip After Hoskinson’s June Move
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —
Pepeto moved into final preparation ahead of a major exchange listing, and the presale became the fastest closing raise of 2026 as rounds close inside days, because $10.29 million is raised, 170% APY staking runs live, three products are in production, and wallets are pouring in at a pace that tells the reader the sharpest capital has already locked the entry before the listing pulls the price out of reach forever.
The reason that capital is flowing this fast becomes clear the moment you check what the large caps are doing right now, since ADA is trading near six-year lows around $0.17 despite the highest stakes catalyst window in Cardano history, and every holder watching that gap should understand why the cardano price prediction and Pepeto keep landing together inside the same cryptocurrency news cycle this June.
Pepeto Exchange Listing Approaches While the Cardano Price Prediction Hangs on the June Rescue Plan
Cardano just walked into the highest stakes quarter in its history because ADA dropped below $0.20 in over five years following Charles Hoskinson’s June 3 break announcement per Yahoo Finance, and the bleeding only stopped on June 18 when ADA touched a $0.148 six-year low while Hoskinson rolled out a 10% protocol revenue buyback plan per CoinDesk.
While the Ouroboros Leios testnet is set to launch on June 23 per CoinMarketCap and Grayscale’s ADA ETF window opens August 9, with the bull cardano price prediction stretching $0.30 to $0.37 and the bear path back toward $0.148.
But the data that actually matters is what failed to follow the catalysts, since ADA stays trapped near six-year lows while daily trading volume has collapsed from $6.3 billion to $500 million and total value locked across Cardano DeFi has dropped 85% from $905 million to $139 million, with capital now flowing toward projects shipping live products rather than those grinding through roadmap delays, because even if the full cardano price prediction plays out a 2x from $0.17 toward $0.37 cannot reshape any portfolio.
That is the reason holders chasing the heaviest upside are pairing their ADA position with the presale carrying the biggest math behind it, since Pepeto walking toward its exchange listing is pulling the heaviest capital in the market right now and keeps showing up next to ADA across every fresh round of cryptocurrency news.
Why Pepeto Is Catching the Attention Cardano Spent Seven Years Trying to Build
The June 2026 data leaves ADA stuck in a sideways range while Pepeto keeps drawing serious money for reasons that run beyond community energy alone, because PepetoSwap runs as a zero-fee exchange across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana with AI scanning every token for risk patterns.
Holders get zero gas bridging and contract checks that lock dangerous tokens out, a former Binance developer built the engine, and the Pepe ecosystem cofounder who grew a token past $7 billion now leads the team.
The Pepe comparison keeps drawing the heaviest wallets to this presale because Pepe coin lifted early holders into millionaire territory without shipping a single product and grew to roughly $11 billion in market cap while the creator of that same token now leads Pepeto.
Since everything that lifted Pepe higher is in place alongside live trading tools, and a $5,000 entry into Pepe grew into $750,000 at the peak, leaving Pepeto as the second chance at that entry while the cardano price prediction sits stuck under a slow recovery path.
Conclusion
The cardano price prediction and the upcoming Leios testnet both point toward a slow recovery and keeping ADA for stability is reasonable, but every cycle runs the same script because life-changing wealth never came from holding a large cap once the bottom held but from finding the right presale before anyone heard the name, and every signal in this cryptocurrency news cycle now leads to Pepeto as the single play of 2026.
The token remains in presale, and history proves entries placed before a token reaches an exchange carry the kind of returns holders chase for years, but presale windows are short and a simple decision to wait is how millions missed every cycle-defining entry and spent years hoping something this rare would appear again.
So once Pepeto hits a major exchange the entry closes the way Pepe coin pricing closed inside hours when the earliest wallets walked away with the returns the market still talks about today.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs
What is the Cardano price prediction for 2026?
The cardano price prediction for 2026 targets $0.30 to $0.37 in the bull case per CoinDesk after Hoskinson’s June rescue plan, with $0.148 marking the six-year low.
Is Pepeto a stronger entry than Cardano right now?
Pepeto is a stronger entry than Cardano today because the presale opens access to a live exchange with a major listing approaching, while ADA at $0.17 offers limited multiplier room.
Crypto
Iran Moves to Close the Strait of Hormuz as Tensions Erupt Over Broken Ceasefire Deal
Key Takeaways
- Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, risking renewed oil market stability after an IDF blitz.
- CENTCOM countered on June 20, reporting 55 ships moved 17M barrels to stabilize oil prices.
- Oil dropped to $77, and Bitcoin topped $66K after the ceasefire, but a Strait closure would hit risk assets.
Iran Announced Closure of the Strait of Hormuz After Lebanon Strikes
The Iranian regime is taking action against what it qualifies as a breach of the previously signed memorandum of understanding to end the current conflict in the Middle East.
Local reports indicate that Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the operational headquarters of the Iranian military, announced that it would close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic passage for 20% of the world’s oil, as a retaliatory measure after the U.S. failed to comply with the first clause of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The first clause of the document stresses that “the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this MOU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other.”
The measure comes as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launches a massive air strike campaign against objectives in Lebanon, hitting at least 80 targets allegedly linked to Hezbollah, and killing dozens of its members. Nonetheless, Lebanese authorities claim that over 47 people were killed and 97 people were wounded during these strikes.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a statement contradicting the Iranian regime, stressing that commercial ship traffic “increased June 20 as U.S. forces continued operating in the general area to support freedom of navigation.” “Safe passage through the international waterway remained intact today as 55 merchant ships transited, moving large amounts of cargo and more than 17 million barrels of oil to global markets,” it stressed.
A new closure of the Strait would result in a general rise in prices of the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent oil benchmarks, which have fallen to $77 and $80, respectively, in response to actions taken to end the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict.
The action could negatively affect crypto markets, as Bitcoin climbed above $66K immediately after the announcement of a framework to end the war, with market actors jumping to risk assets.
Crypto
Ireland Targets Crypto Assets in New Strategy to Disrupt Illicit Cash Flows
Key Takeaways
- On Thursday, Ireland’s Finance Minister, Simon Harris, launched a 30-point action plan to combat Irish money laundering and fraud.
- Crypto-assets and global financial networks face tougher regulations to halt digital illicit cash flows.
- An Garda Síochána and the Central Bank will continuously update enforcement policies through 2026.
Targeting Digital Assets and Crypto Loopholes
Ireland announced a sweeping crackdown on financial crime on June 18, unveiling a national strategy that places a major emphasis on targeting the misuse of cryptocurrency and digital finance by increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.
The new initiative, which includes a National Risk Assessment and a 30-point action plan, was launched by Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan. Officials said the package is specifically engineered to close loopholes created by emerging technologies, with crypto-assets identified as a primary front in the country’s defense against illicit cash flows.
Under the new plan, Ireland will implement enhanced safeguards around crypto-assets to prevent their use in money laundering, fraud, and terrorist financing. The government plans to enforce tougher oversight on digital finance platforms alongside increased transparency around corporate ownership.
“Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, exploiting technology, operating across borders and adapting rapidly to change,” Harris said during the announcement. “Government cannot stand still in the face of these threats.”
Harris emphasized that tech-driven financial crimes carry severe human costs. “Financial crime is not a victimless crime,” he said. “Behind every fraud, scam and money laundering operation, there are real victims — older people losing their savings, families being defrauded and communities harmed by criminal activity.”
The risk assessment warns that Ireland’s global financial networks are facing evolving threats. In addition to stricter cryptocurrency regulations, the 30-point plan introduces tougher anti-money laundering measures within the gambling sector, boosts intelligence sharing between state agencies, and mandates closer coordination among financial crime, tax, and customs investigators.
O’Callaghan said the roadmap provides a practical blueprint to keep Ireland’s regulatory and enforcement responses agile enough to match the pace of technological change.
“This National Risk Assessment provides a comprehensive picture of the threats we face and the actions required to address them,” O’Callaghan said, noting that the strategy will unify efforts across regulators, industry, and law enforcement.
Enforcement of the new policies will involve joint operations between government ministries, the Central Bank, Ireland’s tax authority, and An Garda Síochána, the national police force. Officials noted that the regulatory framework for digital assets will be continually updated to ensure Ireland remains a secure jurisdiction for international business.
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