Dogecoin shot higher on Tuesday evening, extending the post-election surge after President-elect Donald Trump formally announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he called “DOGE” in his statement.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate and co-founder of Strive Asset Management, will lead the unit, Trump said in a statement. Together, they will “pave the way for my administration to dismantle the government bureaucracy, eliminate redundant regulations, cut wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.”

Dogecoin was last up almost 20%. It has been one of the biggest gainers in the post-election rally, gaining 153% since Election Day bitcoins An increase of 30% in the same period. This one also passed by XRP this week to become the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Memecoins are seen as a benchmark for retail interest and risk appetite in crypto. When memecoin activity increases, it usually signals that retail investors are joining in and are eager to speculate further up the risk curve.

Trump initially floated the idea of ​​an efficiency commission in September. Since then, Musk — who has referred to himself as the “Dogefather” in the past and has been known to make public comments about the memecoin affecting its price — has posted on his social media platform X, referring to the committee as the “Department of Efficiency of the government” or “DOGE”

Dogecoin became relevant in 2021 following Musk’s endorsement and the continued hype on social media, which has since become a major catalyst for the coin. In May of that year, Musk’s posts pushed dogecoin’s rally to an all-time high of 67 cents, per Coin Metrics. Although his appearance on SNL at the time, in which he called dogecoin “a hustle,” sent its price plummeting.

The rest of the crypto market was on pause after the post-election rally. Bitcoin was trading flat at around $87,000 after briefly touching $90,000 in late afternoon trading. Crypto stocks Coin base And MicroStrategy were down 1% and 2% respectively in extended trading.