The Open Network (TON) has halted transaction validation and hasn’t produced any new blocks for more than three hours.
On August 28, Tonk Inu, a TON-based community platform, reported on X that the network was experiencing a prolonged outage and cited the market frenzy surrounding the launch of a new memecoin, Dogs (DOGS) as the main reason.
As of August 28 at 2:18 AM UTC, the last approved transactions on TON occurred over three hours earlier in block 45341899, with the network failing to generate new blocks since, according to the Tonscan tracker.
Crypto exchange Bybit cited network instability and temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals for TON until the network stabilises.
Justin, a member of the TON Foundation, explained on X that the outage stemmed from a “network overload” caused by a surge in DOGS transactions, which overwhelmed validators and disrupted consensus. He noted that validators would work to restore consensus at 4:00 AM UTC.
“To restore consensus validators will be called upon to restart at 4:00 UTC,” Justin added.
DOGS memecoin quickly gained traction after launch on August 27. Within the first 10 hours, the token hit $1.7 billion in trading volume and reached a peak market cap of $891 million. The price initially spiked to $0.0018 but later settled around $0.0013, according to CoinMarketCap.
The introduction of DOGS coincided with TON Society’s recent rebranding on August 26, in support of Telegram creator Pavel Durov, who was detained 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.
TON Society updated its branding to feature the “Resistance Dog,” a symbol of digital resistance tied to Durov’s defiance of censorship in 2011.
TON Society also launched an “Open Letter Mini App” within Telegram, urging French authorities to release Durov and protect free speech and privacy rights. The petition had amassed 1.48 million signatures at the time of writing.
Since Durov’s arrest on August 24, Toncoin (TON) has dropped 24% in value, currently trading at $5.22, down 1.7% on the day.
