Memcoin DOGS (DOGS): how did one token lead to two TON blockchain failures?

One of the new projects was able to stand out with a rather original idea and cause a new hype around both tapaloks and memcoins — it's DOGS.

What is DOGS?

DOGS is a new memcoin issued on the TON blockchain and distributed to users of the eponymous mini-application in the Telegram messenger in August 2024. One of the main goals of the DOGS project is to attract Telegram users to the TON ecosystem. DOGS, like Notcoin, attracted new users to the messenger itself.

The essence of this mini-application is that each user is awarded a certain number of DOGS tokens depending on the age of their Telegram account. Accordingly, the earlier a user is registered in Telegram, the more DOGS tokens they can receive. At the end of July 2024, DOGS became one of the three most popular mini-apps in Telegram's MiniApp Store.

The DOGS memcoin's main symbol was the dog Spotty, the mascot of Telegram founder Pavel Durov. Users may remember Spotty from the days of VK (Vkontakte), where he was also one of the main symbols. Perhaps this is why the crypto community has spread the opinion that Durov himself is behind the project, but this information has not been confirmed.

About the DOGS token

Initially, 516 750 000 000 DOGS were issued with a maximum issuance of 550 000 000 000. In other words, more than 93% of the maximum allowed number of DOGS tokens are already circulating in the crypto market.

The project's main advantage is the distribution of tokens among community members. The team has only a small number of tokens left in their hands, which they continue to distribute to users in the form of staking rewards. With this approach, the team cannot manipulate the token price by selling many of them on the market, causing the exchange rate to collapse.

Immediately at the start of trading, the DOGS memcoin entered the top 100 largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization, which was $865 million at the time, according to CoinMarketCap. DOGS also made it into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by trading volume. As of September 2024, DOGS is the second most capitalized memcoin in the TON network after Notcoin.

At the moment of listing on exchanges, the DOGS rate reached its historical maximum (ATH) at $0.0016, after which it began to decline amid active sales. By September 2024, the price of DOGS had fallen to $0.001, 38% below its all-time high.

User activity during the distribution of DOGS tokens was so high that it twice led to a failure in the TON blockchain, even though it set a world record for the number of transactions processed per second and its throughput exceeds 100,000 TPS.

The first failure occurred on August 27: the TON network could not process transactions for about 3 hours. The second one happened the next day, August 28. This time, the network suspended operations for about 7 hours. During these two days, the TON blockchain processed more than 20 million transactions, and according to on-chain analysts' calculations, the number of transactions processed per second reached 150 000 at the peak, exceeding the theoretical throughput capacity of this network.

DOGS outlook

Immediately after the launch, the DOGS token was added to the leading Wallet built into Telegram messenger along with Toncoin (TON), Tether (USDt), and Notcoin (NOT). Memcoin has been flooded by major crypto exchanges, including Binance, ByBit, and OKX.

Notably, the DOGS project does not even have a website: all it has are pages on social networks X (former Twitter) and Telegram. There is no Whitepaper or roadmap, but nothing has been said about the team's immediate concrete plans on social networks, either.

However, in September 2024, the project team said they were preparing "something completely new," but what exactly is still unknown. The DOGS team added, "The community should be ready to make some exciting decisions shortly" and urged to watch for updates.