Telegram Wallet and several cryptocurrency exchanges experienced temporary disruptions after millions of users rushed to trade DOGS.
Dogs Airdrop Disrupts Telegram Wallet Services
Telegram Wallet recently informed the community about storage overload issues as over 10 million DOGS users engaged in swaps and on-chain activities. DOGS, a mini-game on The Open Network, was inspired by Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s mascot, Spotty.
Cryptocurrency exchanges like Bybit reported service disruptions after the project airdropped approximately 440 billion tokens to participants. Binance also encountered challenges during a pre-distribution upgrade a few hours before the distribution. While normal operations quickly resumed on exchanges like Binance and Bybit, Telegram Wallet was still rolling out fixes at the time of reporting.
Meanwhile, MEXC came under scrutiny for listing the token and starting trading ahead of other exchanges. Reports indicate that the exchange began trading DOGS at least an hour before other platforms. This early listing led to price discrepancies and volatility, frustrating users who were still waiting for their airdropped tokens to be exchangeable.
DOGS Surpasses Bitget’s $550 Million FDV Prediction
Bitget anticipated that DOGS would quickly reach a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $550 million, which reflects the value of a token based on its total supply.
However, data indicates that the FDV for the TON-powered web3 gaming token is actually $707 million. The digital asset is trading at approximately $0.0012, aligning with its pre-market trading price prior to the airdrop.
This token is the latest in a series of mini-applications on Telegram to launch its own token, following in the footsteps of projects like Notcoin (NOT). Users are also eagerly awaiting an airdrop from the viral mini-app Hamster Kombat, though the development team has delayed it multiple times.
In related news, Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested over the weekend under a French arrest warrant. French President Emmanuel Macron clarified that Durov’s arrest is part of a judicial investigation into illegal activities on Telegram and not a political crackdown on individual privacy.
This news sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency community and social media, as industry billionaires and stakeholders criticized the French authorities for Durov’s arrest
