TON Network Stalls as New Memecoin DOGS Overloads the System

The Telegram Open Network (TON) has stopped validating new transactions and hasn't produced a new block in more than three hours.

The Telegram Open Network (TON) has encountered an ongoing outage due to a surge in network activity sparked by the launch of the memecoin DOGS, according to an Aug. 28 post on the TON-based community platform Tonk Inu.

The last transactions on TON were approved more than three hours ago in block 45341899, with the network failing to produce any new blocks from then onwards, according to TON network tracker Tonscan.

Citing network instability, crypto exchange ByBit said it had to suspend all deposits and withdrawals to TON until the network had been restored to normal.

In the Aug. 28 post to X, a TON Foundation member who goes by Justin stated that the outage was the result of a “network overload” due to the high number of transactions for the memecoin.

Additionally, he noted that TON validators had also become overloaded, causing them to lose consensus.

“To restore consensus validators will be called upon to restart at 4:00 UTC,” Justin added.

Cointelegraph reached out to TON for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

The memecoin was launched on the Telegram Open Network on Aug. 27.

The token, which is already listed on major exchanges like Binance and OKX, witnessed $1.7 billion in trading volume within the first ten hours of launch and reached a peak market capitalization of $891 million.

The price of the memecoin peaked at $0.0018 immediately after launch and has since fallen to around $0.0013 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The latest canine-themed memecoin on TON comes immediately following an official rebrand by the TON Society on Aug. 26 to support Telegram creator Pavel Durov who was recently arrested in France.

“We are updating Toncoin’s logo and profile pictures across TON Community channels to the global symbol of Digital Resistance — the Resistance Dog,” stated TON Society.

It explained that the dog symbol harks back to 2011 when Pavel Durov was ordered to eradicate the posts of liberal thinkers and dissidents.

The TON Society also announced an “Open Letter Mini App” in the messaging platform urging the French authorities to free Durov from detention and “allow Telegram to protect the freedom of expression and right to private life for its users.”

It had accrued 1.48 million signatures at the time of writing.