How DOGS Memecoin Brought TON Network to its Knees

TLDR:

• TON blockchain experienced two outages within 36 hours due to high demand for new memecoin DOGS
• DOGS saw a 34% price surge, reaching a market cap over $800 million
• The memecoin launch caused technical issues for crypto exchanges and Telegram Wallet
• TON network registered over 20 million transactions in two days, leading to overload
• DOGS became the largest gainer among top 100 cryptocurrencies in 24 hours

The Open Network (TON), a blockchain associated with Telegram, experienced significant disruptions as a new memecoin called DOGS gained rapid popularity.

The network faced two major outages within 36 hours, both attributed to the surge in activity surrounding the DOGS token.

DOGS, a TON-based memecoin centered around a dog mascot named “Spotty,” was created by Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov.

The project announced a massive airdrop and listings on major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX, and Bybit.

This led to an unprecedented increase in user activity, causing technical problems for several crypto exchanges and temporarily disrupting the Telegram Wallet’s exchange feature.

The TON network registered over 20 million transactions in just two days, resulting in what the TON Foundation described as “garbage collection overloading many of the validators for enough time for them to lose consensus.”

The first outage occurred on August 27, lasting for approximately six hours, while the second outage on August 28 lasted for over six hours.

Despite these technical challenges and a broader market downturn, the DOGS token saw a remarkable 34% price jump, reaching a market capitalization above $800 million. This performance made DOGS the largest gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies in a 24-hour period.

The DOGS airdrop allocated 440 billion tokens out of the 550 billion total supply to eligible users. The token distribution included 81.5% for the community, with 73% reserved for “Telegram OGs,” 4.5% for traders and content creators, 10% for the project team and future development, and 8.5% for liquidity on centralized and decentralized exchanges.

The launch of DOGS contributed to significant congestion on the TON blockchain, with the token accumulating over $1.7 billion in trading volume within the first 10 hours of going live.

The official Dogs channel on Telegram amassed nearly 17 million subscribers in less than two months since the token was first proposed.

These events occurred against the backdrop of recent developments involving Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov.

French authorities arrested Durov outside of Paris, alleging failure to moderate criminal activity on the messaging platform. Durov was later moved from custody to a court for questioning.

While Telegram originally developed TON, the company abandoned the project in 2020 due to regulatory scrutiny. Community developers have since continued to build and evolve the ecosystem.

Telegram remains independent from TON, although the cryptocurrency is popular among the platform’s users, and Telegram has integrated some TON-based features into its app.