By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON — One of the top figures at the U.S. Dogecoin Service, 19-year-old Edward Coristine, has stepped down from his position within the U.S. government, according to a statement made by an official from the White House on Tuesday. This occurred about a month following the contentious exit of Coristine’s previous supervisor, Elon Musk.
The representative from The White House provided no additional information about the action, and Coristine did not promptly respond to an emailed request for commentary.
Coristine previously worked for Musk's neural link firm, Neuralink, prior to joining the tech mogul when he headed the Department of Government Efficiency set up by the Trump administration earlier this year.
DOGE has implemented workforce reductions across nearly all federal agencies but is now experiencing cutbacks within its own organization. Notably, key Musk associate Steve Davis, responsible for managing DOGE’s daily operations, has departed, as have several others.
The White House has stated that DOGE's mission will proceed.
As Coristine's youthful persona known as "Big Balls" turned into a pop culture phenomenon, DOGE made waves within the U.S. government, leading to widespread seizures of data and mass layoffs of staff members.
Recently reported that Coristine was among two individuals associated with DOGE advocating for the integration of artificial intelligence throughout the federal government.
Various media sources, such as Wired who initially broke the news of his exit, disclosed that Coristine was involved in a chatroom frequented by hackers and had also been dismissed from another position due to an alleged data breach.
In March, reports indicated that Coristine had offered technical assistance to a cybercriminal group that boasted about dealing with stolen data and hassling an FBI agent.
(Reported by Raphael Satter; Edited by Stephen Coates)