Elon Musk has quashed speculation that Dogecoin could be used by the United States government as part of a new Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E).

Musk, who is currently helming D.O.G.E for President Donald Trump, made the remarks on Sunday at a town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, hosted by his America PAC.

“There are no plans for the government to use Dogecoin or anything as far as I know,” the Tesla/SpaceX CEO said. “They happen to be similar names, but really, we’re literally just trying to make the government 15% more efficient.”

Announced by Trump in December, D.O.G.E is the agency tasked with slashing federal spending and streamlining operations. The extragovernmental agency has reportedly saved around $130 billion since starting in January, with an average of $840 in savings for taxpayers.

However, despite its main focus on government efficiency, Musk’s involvement in the project has sparked speculation about cryptocurrency-related initiatives.

In February, D.O.G.E’s official website was briefly updated with an image of Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu mascot following Trump’s inauguration, which rumors had President Trump planning to install an agency focused on cryptocurrency.

This fueled further speculation of a crypto tie-in and drove the price of the meme asset up 15% at the time.

Musk has previously shared bullish views on Dogecoin through his tweets and public statements. He has defended the meme coin’s inflationary model, calling it “a feature” that will aid in boosting Dogecoin’s usability for everyday transactions.

Earlier this month, Musk slammed meme coins and likened them to a casino and advised investors not to put their life savings into them.

However, he singled out Dogecoin, adding that the meme coin is "the only one that started as a meme coin." This implies that Dogecoin has shed its meme coin status and is now viewed as a serious cryptocurrency.

The price of DOGE is down 5.2% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, in line with a wider market correction.