This week has been a difficult period for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The value of the memecoin, which gained popularity thanks to the support of Elon Musk, fell by about 10% in just one day and by a total of 22% in the week, CNBC reports.
This decline coincided with Musk's official departure from the Donald Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk and Trump have been at odds in public in recent days. Musk has sharply criticized Trump's budget bill, and Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a close friend of Musk, to head NASA.
The conflict escalated after Trump expressed disappointment with Musk's performance as Tesla CEO. Musk responded by saying that without his support, Trump would not have won the election. Trump called Musk "crazy" and threatened to cancel Tesla's government contracts, sending the company's shares down 14%.
As for the decline in the price of Dogecoin, it depends a lot on public opinion and news about Musk, as this memecoin has no intrinsic value of its own. In the past, Musk's support has repeatedly caused price spikes — for example, when Tesla started accepting Dogecoin as payment, or when Musk changed the Twitter logo to a Shiba Inu symbol, which caused a sharp increase.
Now, the conflict between Musk and Trump is negatively affecting the popularity and price of Dogecoin.