The Telegram Open Network (TON) has experienced a significant outage, ceasing block production for over three hours due to a surge in traffic from the newly launched DOGS memecoin.

TON Fails to Generate New Block

For over three hours, the Telegram Open Network (TON) has failed to generate a new block and has ceased validating new transactions.

In a message made on August 28th to the TON community site Tonk Inu, the TON network was said to have been down for some time and that the market buzz surrounding a newly released memecoin named DOGS was to blame.

Tonscan, a tool for monitoring the TON network, reports that no new blocks have been generated since the last TON transactions were allowed in block 45341899 over three hours ago.

No one from TON was available to comment on the network downtime when Cointelegraph reached out to them.

DOGS Memecoin Causes Surge in Traffic

According to Tonk Inu, the new DOGS memecoin caused an abnormally high amount of network traffic, which caused downtime.

Aug. 27 saw the introduction of the DOGS memecoin on the Telegram Open Network.

With a high market cap of $891 million, the token—which is already listed on major exchanges like Binance and OKX—saw $1.7 billion in trading volume within the first 10 hours of debut.

Based on statistics from CoinMarketCap, the memecoin price has dropped from its launch-day high of $0.0018 to its current level of approximately $0.0013.

TON Society Supports Durov

In response to the recent imprisonment of Telegram developer Pavel Durov in France, the TON Society formally rebranded on August 26 to support Durov, the latest canine-themed memecoin on TON.

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

In 2011, when Pavel Durov was instructed to remove the posts of liberal thinkers and dissidents, the emblem of the dog was brought up.

“In response, Pavel posted a picture of his dog, refusing to silence anyone on his platform. Since then, this dog has become the mascot of free speech. It has become an emblem of hope, incredible strength, and courage.”

Aside from announcing a "Open Letter Mini App" on the messaging platform, the TON Society demanded that the French government release Durov from arrest and "allow Telegram to protect the freedom of expression and right to private life for its users."