DOGE Gains Briefly After Musk Meme—Manipulation or Coincidence?

• Elon Musk’s recent tweet on DOGE led to a temporal price surge for the meme coin, forcing some crypto enthusiasts to question his intentions.
• Dogecoin’s rally was short-lived as the asset took a nosedive to below $0.4; however, an analyst anticipates a run to $0.82.

Tesla’s Elon Musk has come under suspicion after his recent DOGE-centric post, which changed the downward trend of the dog-themed meme coin to bullish ways. According to reports, his post on November 25 with the caption “DOGE is inevitable” could directly refer to the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.).

However, DOGE recorded a sharp surge within the period. For a section of the crypto community, these are more deliberate than coincidence.

On October 28, Musk also posted a captionless image featuring himself and a DOGE-like being. Immediately, the price of Dogecoin surged by 14%. At that time, Dogecoin was trading below $0.2. Fascinatingly, the asset built on this momentum to reach a monthly high of $0.477. Meanwhile, Musk’s latest tweet failed to propel the price beyond its recent high, as it took a nosedive to hit $0.39. On the daily price chart, DOGE has declined by 7%.

Musk and the Court

About two years ago, a group of investors “dragged” Musk to court for allegedly manipulating the price of DOGE for his gain, demanding a whopping $258 billion in damages. Analyzing the court’s document, we discovered that the investors believed that Musk manipulated the price through a series of social media posts, which included frequent tweets and his appearance at NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

The plaintiff, Keith Johnson, wrote in the initial legal filing that:

Defendant Musk is the self-appointed ‘Dogefather,’ ‘former CEO of Dogecoin,’ partner, developer, spokesperson, publicist, salesman, marketer, and promoter of Dogecoin — who assembled the ‘Doge Army’ including his corporations and various billionaires, influencers, and celebrities to increase the price, market cap and trading volume of Dogecoin.

On August 29, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the case. As CNF reported, the Judge claimed that “reasonable” investors would not make investment decisions based on such tweets. Currently, the investors have withdrawn their appeal.

Following these reports, an X user identified as “Sir Doge of the Coin” humorously disclosed that Musk deliberately named a government department DOGE so he could post about the meme coin without getting into trouble.

Elon Musk literally named a government department ’DOGE’ so he can shitpost about it again whenever he wants without getting in trouble Fucking legend! https://t.co/PWKOf83IpF— Sir Doge of the Coin (@dogeofficialceo) November 25, 2024

DOGE Price Analysis

According to analyst Ali Martinez, DOGE has just printed a bull flag pattern on its 4-hour timeframe, suggesting a bullish continuation. He says the asset could surge by 120% to hit $0.82 as long as its support level at $0.37 is strictly maintained.

Source: Ali Martinez

Meanwhile, another analyst identified as Trader Tardigrade argues that DOGE would drop to $0.3 before rallying to $3. According to him, a similar correction occurred in the 2017/2018 cycle before embarking on its bullish run. Analyzing his thesis, we observed that the asset had entered the overbought territory at the time of his prediction.

Also, DOGE’s Fear and Greed index was “sitting” above 80, which is the zone of Extreme Greed. Technically, assets in this position pull back to “cool off” before embarking on another run.