- Trump said he’d considered offering Musk a role in government.
- The Tesla CEO responded by making a joke about the Doge memecoin.
- Musk’s previous Doge quips have seen its price skyrocket.
The Trump-Musk bromance shows no signs of cooling off.
Hot on the heels of their rambling chat last week, former President Donald Trump now seems open to offering his new billionaire beau a government position if reelected.
“He’s a very smart guy,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters. “I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He’s a brilliant guy.”
True to form, Elon Musk seized the opportunity to promote his favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.
The exchange on X began when a user known as “Sir Doge of the Coin” joked that Musk should be appointed to the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or D.O.G.E for short.
I am willing to serve pic.twitter.com/BJhGbcA2e0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2024
Musk responded by calling it a “perfect name” and shared an AI-generated image of himself at a podium with the D.O.G.E. initials emblazoned in front of him. He captioned it “I am willing to serve.”
Both Trump and Musk hold significant sway in the crypto community. Their actions and comments have been credited with price surges in various tokens, especially in the burgeoning world of political memecoins — a niche that has gained traction as the 2024 election approaches.
Political-themed tokens like MAGA (TRUMP), Doland Tremp (TREMP), and Kamala Horris (KAMA) currently boast a combined market cap of over $505 million, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $136 million, according to CoinGecko.
Yet, Musk’s latest promotion of Dogecoin surprisingly had little impact on the coin’s price — up just 5% in the last 24 hours.
This is in stark contrast to previous instances where Musk’s tweets and actions led to substantial price surges. In October 2022, Dogecoin soared over 70% when Musk finalised his acquisition of Twitter, now X.
And changing the X logo to a picture of Kabosu, the shiba inu dog in the Dogecoin logo, in April 2023 sent the price up more than 30%.
Meanwhile, Trump, who has positioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate, is doubling down on his involvement in space despite being a former sceptic.
He recently gave a speech at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville and is preparing to launch his fourth NFT collection. His sons are also reportedly working on a new crypto project, but few details have emerged about the project.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is up 4.2% in the last 24 hours, priced at $61,047.
- Ethereum up 1.9% in the same period and is trading for $2,678.
What we are reading
- Lack of Bitcoin mention in Democratic Party platform casts doubt on Harris crypto pivot – DL News
- Bitcoin’s Post-Halving Price Performance So Far Is Worst Ever — Unchained
- Voter apathy costs DAOs millions. Can tokens save them? — DL News
- Why economists say the CFTC is wrong about prediction markets — DL News
- Solana’s Former Top Decentralised Crypto Exchange Faces SEC Securities Violations — CoinDesk
Callan Quinn is an Asia Correspondent for DL News. Got a tip? Email her at callan@dlnews.com.
