DogeOS founder and CEO Jordan Jefferson believes Dogecoin's dependence on Elon Musk for attention and momentum is fading as the memecoin's ecosystem matures.
"There is absolutely no question that Dogecoin would not be as big as it is without Elon kind of going in and supporting it," Jefferson said during an interview with The Block's Gareth Jenkinson at the Consensus Miami conference.
DogeOS is a major advocate for the Dogecoin (DOGE) ecosystem and the developer of an application layer built using the memecoin's network. In May 2025, DogeOS said it raised $6.9 million in a round led by Polychain Capital.
Jefferson recalled how Dogecoin hit an all-time high after the billionaire mentioned Dogecoin on Saturday Night Live in 2021. But now he looks at recent developments and the memecoin's growth and is encouraged about its future with or without Musk's support.
"It's interesting and very good for Dogecoin that it's like sort of started to transcend that," he said. "Elon stopped being about Dogecoin for a while like for whatever reason. He stopped doing like these stunts like changing the Twitter logo to a Doge, all this kind of stuff, but Dogecoin didn't fade into obscurity."
With a market capitalization of around $17.6 billion, Dogecoin is among the world's top 10 cryptocurrencies. DOGE is currently changing hands at around $0.11, according to The Block's DOGE price page. The memecoin is more or less flat year-to-date and down about 50% over the past year.
Last year, amid the digital asset treasury (DAT) boom, Thumzup Media Corporation bought about $2 million worth of DOGE. The company had said it planned to set up 3,500 Dogecoin mining rigs by year's end through its pending acquisition of mining firm Dogehash. Thumzup trades on the Nasdaq and is backed by the U.S. president's son, Donald Trump Jr.
Jefferson joined Thumzup's Crypto Advisory Board, partly so the two companies could explore connecting Thumzup's mining operations with DogeOS applications. Thumzup later changed its name to Datacentrex.
The DogeOS executive believes Dogecoin to be bigger than ever, with lots of potential for future growth. "There's like teams like us coming in, and investment opportunity, and all this potential and I mean crazy, crazy things on the horizon I wish I could tell you about, but like some big stuff that's gonna really open the industry's eyes."
An OG Bitcoiner, Jefferson believes Dogecoin has replaced Bitcoin (BTC) in some ways. "Dogecoin is really carrying the torch of the early Bitcoin days, and peer-to-peer electronic cash, and like the OG crypto vibes that I fell in love with," he said.