Doge is a weird beast. It’s a Shiba Inu that somehow jumped from a 2013 internet joke to a multi-billion dollar financial asset and, eventually, the name of a federal cost-cutting project in the United States. If you’re asking what has Doge done lately, you’re likely looking for one of two things: the coin that refuses to die or the Department of Government Efficiency. Both have been making a mess of things in their own unique ways over the last year.
Honestly, the "Doge" label is now split down the middle. On one side, you've got the cryptocurrency ($DOGE) that people still trade like crazy. On the other, you have the actual governmental effort led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Both are chaotic. Both are driven by hype. And both have fundamentally changed how we look at "efficiency" and "value" in 2026.
The "Other" DOGE: What the Department of Government Efficiency Actually Did
When Donald Trump took office again in early 2025, he didn't just hire Elon Musk; he gave him a chainsaw. He called it the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. It wasn't a real cabinet-level department—it couldn't be without Congress—but it acted like one. Basically, it was a "temporary organization" designed to slash and burn federal spending.
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The goal was huge. Musk initially claimed he could cut $2 trillion. That's nearly a third of the entire federal budget. It didn't happen. By mid-2025, that estimate dropped to $1 trillion, and by the time 2026 rolled around, the "realized" savings were closer to $150 billion to $200 billion. Still a lot of money, but a far cry from the original promise.
Mass Layoffs and "Moving Fast"
DOGE went after the federal workforce first. They sent out "deferred resignation" offers to over two million employees. If you quit by September 2025, you got a buyout. If you didn't, you risked the "efficiency teams" coming for your desk. By the time DOGE started winding down in late 2025, about 76,000 employees had taken the buyout, and 55,000 positions were simply deleted.
It wasn't smooth. Not at all.
They fired hundreds of nuclear weapons workers by mistake and had to hire them back weeks later when someone realized, "Oh, wait, we actually need people to manage the warheads." It was the "move fast and break things" Silicon Valley mentality applied to the most bureaucratic machine on earth. It sowed a lot of chaos. Agencies like the GSA (General Services Administration) were basically taken over by Musk's "A-team" engineers, who looked at every single government contract and asked why a hammer cost $400.
The $1 Credit Card Rule
One of the most disruptive things DOGE did was change the government’s spending habits overnight. They literally put a $1 limit on most government credit cards. Imagine being a park ranger or a maintenance tech and not being able to buy a box of screws because your card got declined. It created a massive bottleneck. While it definitely stopped some "wasteful" spending, it also stopped the government from actually functioning in some sectors.
What Has Doge Done for Investors?
While the government version of Doge was firing people, the cryptocurrency version was riding the rollercoaster. Dogecoin (the coin) is currently sitting around $0.13 to $0.14 in January 2026. If you’re a long-term holder, that's a bit painful considering it was over $0.40 a year ago.
The hype from the "Department" being named after the coin gave it a massive pump in late 2024, but that fuel eventually ran out. Why? Because Dogecoin still doesn't do much. It's a payment coin that few people use for payments.
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The Utility Problem
People always ask: "Is it going to hit a dollar?" Probably not anytime soon. The technical progress on the Dogecoin blockchain has been, well, slow. It’s still a proof-of-work system that eats a lot of energy. While companies like AMC and Newegg still accept it, the transaction volume isn't exactly setting the world on fire.
Most of the "value" in Dogecoin today comes from the fact that it's a cultural icon. It's the "people's crypto." But in a market where new projects are solving real-world supply chain issues or cross-border payment glitches in seconds, Doge is looking more like a digital antique.
The Surprising Legacy of the Doge Movement
Whether you're talking about the coin or the department, the "Doge" brand has proven one thing: memes can become policy. It’s the first time in history a joke currency literally inspired the name of a government oversight body. That’s wild.
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But there’s a dark side to the efficiency drive. Critics point to the fact that DOGE (the department) slashed foreign aid programs so aggressively that some health experts, like Professor Brooke Nichols, estimated it contributed to thousands of preventable deaths in developing nations due to halted medical supplies. Efficiency looks great on a spreadsheet but can be brutal on the ground.
Where it stands now
In November 2025, it was quietly announced that the "Department of Government Efficiency" was essentially being absorbed into the Office of Personnel Management. The "Doge" era of the US government officially concludes its temporary status on July 4, 2026. It's leaving behind a leaner, albeit more fractured, federal workforce.
Actionable Steps for the "Doge" Curious
If you’re trying to navigate the fallout of what Doge has done—whether as a taxpayer or an investor—here is the reality:
- Watch the OPM, not the meme: If you're a federal worker or contractor, the "Doge" era of layoffs is mostly over, but the new hiring standards are much stricter. The focus has shifted from "cutting" to "modernizing IT."
- Don't buy the "Doge to $1" hype: Unless there is a massive new integration (like $DOGE becoming the native currency of a major social media platform), its price is likely to remain tied to Bitcoin's coattails.
- Check your government contracts: If you do business with the feds, expect more scrutiny. The "receipts" that DOGE promised are now part of a more permanent audit culture in D.C.
- Understand the "Efficiency" shift: The biggest thing Doge did was move the goalposts. It's now "politically cool" to talk about firing bureaucrats. That sentiment isn't going away, even if the department does.
The Doge experiment, in both its financial and political forms, was an attempt to disrupt systems that felt too slow and too expensive. It succeeded in being fast and disruptive, but the "efficiency" part? That's still up for debate.