Dogecoin In Free Fall. Is It Over for Elon Musk’s Favorite Crypto?

The world’s original meme coin, Dogecoin (DOGE), is facing an enormous price crash, having shed significant value over the past week. Once a symbol of fun and a light-hearted attitude to crypto, DOGE has suffered a severe bloodbath, raising questions from many traders about whether the coin’s golden days have come to an unavoidable end.

But why is Dogecoin going down? The Dogecoin crash has sparked speculation among investors, with some blaming market volatility, while others point to declining interest from retail traders and shifting focus from its most prominent supporter, Dogecoin owner Elon Musk.

DOGE’s sharp plummet of 38% is making traders panic since many of them have been holding it tight, inspired by its strong community and its most famous advocate, Musk, who has recently become somewhat distant from the project.

From popular meme to crypto market giant

Dogecoin was created in 2013 by two software engineers, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, based on the Bitcoin code as a joke. They meant DOGE to be a fun, satirical, and playful take on the emerging cryptocurrency industry and all the worship given to Bitcoin as early as then.

The coin featured the Shiba Inu dog from the famous Internet meme “Doge,” and it quickly gained popularity among the community thanks to its friendly myth, low transaction fees, and the enthusiasm shared by its online community.

Still, despite its meme origins, Dogecoin gradually turned out to be much more than just a joke. Over the 12 years of its existence, DOGE has been used for charity, tipping online projects, and crowdfunding. The real breakthrough for Dogecoin meme took place in the late 2010s, when it caught the eye of Dogecoin owner, the powerful entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk began tweeting about DOGE around 2017-2018, and his tweets then started to work magic on the meme coin’s price. Whenever he posted about the DOGE, the market responded, sometimes immediately, often showing a double-digit percentage rise. Elon Musk Dogecoin mentions became a major driver of hype, as he called Dogecoin “the people’s cryptocurrency” and even joked that it could be the currency used on Mars when SpaceX takes settlers to the red planet.

In 2021, Tesla announced that it would begin accepting Dogecoin for its merchandise. SpaceX followed suit a year later. However, recent trends and Musk’s shifting focus have raised concerns among investors, contributing to the ongoing Dogecoin crash.

In 2021, Elon Musk jokingly called himself “The DogeFather” and then endorsed the meme coin in his debut on the popular Saturday Night Live TV show as a co-host in April. In early May that year, DOGE soared to an all-time high, which has not been surpassed yet – $0.7376.

In 2022, DOGE faced a lot of speculation and hype, which resulted in massive price surges followed by corrections. By 2023, the hype began to wear off as a lot of new meme coins emerged and took the spotlight. Some of them called themselves “The Dogecoin Killer,” such as SHIB.

Still, the Dogecoin community has remained loyal, with the co-founder Billy Markus being a constant Twitter and then X user, often tweeting about it. From time to time, Musk’s tweets would trigger DOGE’s spike, but the days of double-digit percentage growth after his tweets were gone. 

While spot Dogecoin ETFs and institutional interest offer hope for price recovery, another area that continues to attract Dogecoin miners is Dogecoin cloud mining. Unlike traditional mining, which requires expensive hardware, cloud mining allows users to mine DOGE without investing in equipment—simply by renting hash power from remote data centers. This method has made Dogecoin mining more accessible, especially for those who want to participate in the network without technical complexities.

In 2025, Musk’s attention has shifted elsewhere, to a project with a similar name, connected with finance, one may say, but not with crypto – D.O.G.E.

Musk focuses on D.O.G.E., Dogecoin set aside 

Elon Musk is no longer just a tech billionaire and the X user with the biggest number of followers (219.5 million) – as of late, he has been deeply involved in American politics. Since early 2025, he has been actually working within the US government. In particular, President Donald Trump has made him an advisor and appointed Musk to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk prefers to shorten it to the name of his favorite meme coin – D.O.G.E. He openly said that he chose this abbreviation because of the meme asset he loves. This step reassured investors that he still supported Dogecoin.

However, as the “DogeFather” seems now to be much more absorbed in cutting down the excessive spending of numerous US government departments, his previously high engagement with Dogecoin has noticeably faded. Occasionally, he still mentions Dogecoin in passing, but he does not tweet about it anymore with the enthusiasm he used to show for the meme coin. Instead, his X posts have mostly turned into discussions and debates about the US government’s efficiency, cutting down expenses, shutting down projects, fighting corruption, etc.

This sudden shift in interest has led many to wonder if Musk remains a Dogecoin believer or if he is now more interested in D.O.G.E. as a new project that allows him to leverage his managerial talent. Many crypto fans believe that Dogecoin has become what it is largely thanks to Musk’s support, and without it, DOGE would hardly remain as popular and competitive in the current cryptocurrency market.

Dogecoin ETFs and the SEC

Still, despite the recent troubles, Dogecoin remains in the race. Institutional interest in this meme coin has displayed a big increase recently – leading wealth management companies have been making moves to turn Dogecoin into a mainstream investment tool. Grayscale and Bitwise have filed in for spot Dogecoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

However, while the SEC has just accepted the DOGE ETF submission from Bitwise, it has delayed its decision on the Dogecoin ETF submitted by Grayscale earlier. Alongside it, decisions on the XRP, SOL, and LTC ETFs have been delayed until later. For Dogecoin holders, these ETFs are a big hope since if they get approved by the SEC, this could take the meme coin to the next level and boost its price substantially, also giving it more stability. As Elon Musk’s Dogecoin influence continues to fluctuate, many traders are looking for reliable platforms to trade DOGE and stay ahead of market trends

If you’re considering investing in Dogecoin, you can start trading today on Margex.