TON ecosystem DOGS airdrop is coming soon, market cap有望 to surpass Notcoin as top exchanges battle for users

By Frank, PANews

DOGS, a meme project on the TON ecosystem, has recently become a market favorite, with major exchanges including Binance, OKX, Bitget, Bybit, and Gate.io racing to announce their upcoming listings of the DOGS token. Notably, OKX and Bitget have even launched pre-market trading for DOGS ahead of its official listing. Such intense competition is unusual—especially considering DOGS is a meme project that's been live for only over a month. Many believe DOGS could replicate the success of Notcoin by driving significant new user growth across exchanges, sparking fierce competition among CEXs for early listing rights.

Abandoning Tap-to-Play: Telegram Users Get Airdrop Directly

Since July, DOGS has emerged as a dark horse within the TON ecosystem. Unlike Notcoin or Hamster Kombat, which rely on "tap-to-play" mini-games where users earn points through active participation, DOGS takes a different approach. It uses an algorithm based on Telegram usage duration and activity levels to determine airdrop allocations—essentially offering free tokens to long-time, active users.

This effortless airdrop model quickly captured community attention. Within less than 10 days of launch, over 10 million users joined the DOGS Telegram channel. As of August 22, the channel had surpassed 16 million members, ranking it fourth globally among all Telegram channels.

Besides its unique airdrop mechanism, DOGS is also one of the fastest projects in the recent wave of Telegram-based mini-games to deliver airdrops. According to official announcements, the DOGS airdrop claim period will extend until August 23, with the Token Generation Event (TGE) and exchange listings scheduled for August 26 at 12:00 UTC. In contrast, previously popular games like Hamster Kombat and TapSwap attracted millions of users over months of engagement but have yet to announce clear TGE timelines. Hamster Kombat was even reported by Russian media to be facing internal team conflicts—an article later deleted.

According to official data, DOGS has a total supply capped at 550 billion tokens: 81.5% allocated to the community (no vesting), 10% reserved for the team and future development (12-month lockup), and 8.5% dedicated to CEX and DEX liquidity and listing activities.

Market Cap at Launch Could Surpass Notcoin

With the token launch plan confirmed, major exchanges such as OKX and Bitget have already initiated pre-market trading for DOGS. As of August 22, the pre-market price on OKX was around $0.0032. At this valuation, DOGS would reach a market cap of approximately $1.76 billion—surpassing NOT’s initial market cap of about $700 million upon listing—and placing it directly within the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Official figures indicate that 43 million users are eligible to claim tokens, with the top recipient entitled to 23,787,023 DOGS—worth over $76,000 at current prices.

However, this price may disappoint some holders. Besides airdropped tokens, DOGS can also be purchased directly using Telegram’s built-in currency, Stars, at a 1:1 conversion rate (1 Star = 1 DOGS).

Given that 1 Star is worth approximately $0.01932, investors who bought DOGS via Stars are currently sitting on an 83% loss. However, the team appears to offer partial compensation to these early adopters: of the 81.5% allocated to the community, 73% goes to standard airdrops while the remainder rewards traders, sticker creators, and future community contributors. The team’s direct sale of tokens has drawn some criticism, but they responded by clarifying that proceeds from Star purchases will be donated 100% to charity, with specific organizations to be selected through community voting.

Exchanges Pull Out All Stops to Attract Users

This year, mini-games on the TON ecosystem have highlighted the immense potential behind Telegram’s 900 million users. After Notcoin’s successful Binance listing in May sparked widespread interest, clicker games like Hamster Kombat and TapSwap drew massive user bases. Now, DOGS’ rising popularity has triggered another wave of competitive exchange listings—driven primarily by hopes of tapping into Telegram’s vast user pool.

As Colin Wu revealed, “Notcoin’s listing brought tens of thousands of new users to first- and second-tier exchanges, mostly from Russian-speaking CIS countries.” In today’s relatively stagnant market environment, such user growth volumes are too significant for exchanges to ignore.

That said, despite huge user numbers, games like Hamster Kombat and TapSwap face uncertainty due to delayed airdrops. Hamster Kombat claims over 300 million users, yet its airdrop remains indefinitely postponed—largely because its initial design failed to prevent bot farming, making it difficult to verify genuine users. The team has repeatedly delayed the rollout, citing technical challenges in processing fair airdrop distributions.

Moreover, there's skepticism about whether users acquired purely through tap mechanics possess real purchasing power or can meaningfully contribute capital to the crypto market. This concern is echoed by exchange executives.

Binance co-founder and head of Binance Labs, He Yi, noted during a recent AMA: “We recently collaborated with some Web3 gaming projects and attracted 1.3 million users—but only 56 of them became active traders, as most were just chasing free rewards.”

In contrast, DOGS’ airdrop mechanism—based on Telegram usage depth—is seen by the community as potentially attracting higher-quality users. Mike, founder of GoPlus, commented on X: “Dogs’ airdrop reflects users’ Telegram engagement depth. No tapping required—just verification of your TG account grants eligibility. Through this simple, direct method, Dogs achieves a token distribution closely aligned with core Telegram users. Those holding large amounts are more likely to be genuine, long-term Telegram users. When these users sell on Binance, Binance can assess whether Telegram is a viable channel for acquiring valuable new users—and adjust its support for Telegram or the TON ecosystem accordingly.”

Given these factors, exchanges have high expectations for DOGS. Beyond simple listings, most are launching special campaigns to attract users. Binance introduced an event allowing users to stake BNB and FDUSD to earn DOGS; OKX launched DOGS futures trading as early as August 5; Bitget ran a giveaway totaling 13,600 TON for social sharing; Bybit offered 150,000 DOGS to new depositors. Amid this fierce competition, Gracy from Bitget remarked in a community chat: “The traffic from DOGS is truly massive,” adding, “Looks like even Binance can’t stay calm anymore.”

To date, 20 million users have connected wallets, and 43 million are eligible for the airdrop. As of August 22, DOGS announced that over 8 million verified users have requested direct deposits of their $DOGS tokens into exchanges and Telegram wallets. For comparison, Notcoin had around 11.5 million token holders. DOGS appears poised to break that record. Given such strong user acquisition potential, it’s no surprise that exchanges are scrambling to get involved.