• Elon Musk discussed plans for a "Department of Government Efficiency" (D.O.G.E), leading to a 7% surge in Dogecoin's price, pushing it over 13 cents for the first time since late July.

• Musk's backing of Trump and the potential political implications of D.O.G.E. have sparked increased interest and speculative trading in DOGE.

Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped late U.S. hours Thursday as entrepreneur Elon Musk further revealed plans for his proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” at a Pennslyvania town hall.

The event encouraged early voting in the crucial state where Republicans and Democrats are in lockheads.

DOGE rose 7% to over 13 cents for the first time since late July, beating the broader market and bitcoin’s 1% rise in the past 24 hours. It extended one-week gains to over 22%, the highest among all major tokens.

DOGE-denoted open interest - or the number of unsettled futures bets – spiked to over 5 billion tokens in a sign of forthcoming volatility. Higher open interest alongside higher prices suggests that the market trend is strong.

Musk has emerged as a key backer of Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the past months. He has donated over $75 million to the American PAC since July and is scheduled for several campaign appearances in Pennsylvania this month.

The proposed department, abbreviated as D.O.G.E, will seek to make government spending of taxpayer money more efficient while streamlining departments that handle spending.

Musk suggested the proposed department could be run similarly to a corporate company at the Thursday town hall, with incentives for performers and penalties for those who fail to deliver results.

The expectation among crypto traders is that a Trump victory could lead to more chatter of “DOGE,” fueling retail attention and interest in dogecoin in the future if D.O.G.E actually becomes a part of the government.

“Elon Musk is simply going to meme the 'Department of Government Efficiency' into existence - with validation from Trump!,” influential X trader @theunipcs said in a Wednesday post, as reported. “And you can expect him to continue to aggressively bullpost the concept until it gets created.”

@theunipcs added in a Friday post that DOGE’s popularity could also fuel a rise in floki (FLOKI), a meme ecosystem project initially inspired by the name of Musk’s pet dog.

Musk is a long-time dogecoin supporter and DOGE tends to surge on payments-related developments at any Musk-owned companies, such as X or Tesla.