Dogecoin appears to be breaking away from its reliance on Elon Musk's influence, according to Jordan Jefferson, founder and CEO of DogeOS. Speaking at Consensus Miami, Jefferson acknowledged Musk's historic role in pushing Dogecoin to an all-time high after a Saturday Night Live mention, but emphasized that the memecoin is now building its own momentum. "Elon stopped being about Dogecoin for a while... but Dogecoin didn't fade into obscurity," he said.
DogeOS, which raised $6.9 million in May 2025 from investors including Polychain Capital, is developing an application layer on Dogecoin's network. Jefferson highlighted the acquisition of Dogehash mining firm by Thumzup Media Corporation (now Datacentrex) as a sign of growing infrastructure. Thumzup, backed by Donald Trump Jr., had earlier purchased $2 million in DOGE and planned to deploy 3,500 mining rigs. The partnership aims to integrate mining with DogeOS applications.
With a market cap of about $17.6 billion, Dogecoin trades around $0.11, down 50% year-over-year. Yet Jefferson sees "crazy things on the horizon" that will "open the industry's eyes." He even suggested Dogecoin is now carrying the torch of Bitcoin's early peer-to-peer cash vision, stating, "Dogecoin is really carrying the torch of the early Bitcoin days."
