Web3 CMO Stories

Telegram's NFT Revolution: The Rise of Digital Collectibles | S5 E28

• Joeri Billast & Alex from DOGS • Season 5

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Digital ownership is evolving rapidly, and nowhere is this more evident than in Telegram's thriving ecosystem. Alex, CMO of DOGS and Open Builders, takes us on a journey through the revolutionary world of digital collectibles that's transforming how millions of users engage with Web3.

The conversation begins with the fascinating origin story of DOGS, starting as a simple sketch by Pavel Durov himself for a charity auction supporting orphanages. This meaningful beginning blossomed into a movement that gathered millions of community members in just days and achieved a Binance listing within two months. The narrative then shifts to how stickers serve as powerful onboarding tools for Web2 users entering the blockchain space.

What makes Telegram's digital collectibles truly unique is their built-in utility. Unlike traditional NFTs that struggled with practical applications, these stickers and collectibles integrate seamlessly into users' daily communications. "Collectibles on Telegram have this built-in utility from the get-go. They are very easy to flex, they have their place within the Telegram ecosystem and they always will be," Alex explains.

Perhaps most fascinating is how these digital assets foster genuine community building. Owners of particular stickers have organically created exclusive chat groups, coordinated marketing efforts, produced merchandise, and even arranged real-life meetups. These communities blend crypto veterans with newcomers, facilitating knowledge transfer and creating shared experiences around digital assets—something Alex notes "many meme coins would be jealous to see."

The market performance speaks for itself, with some stickers seeing price increases of up to 44,000% and trading volumes hitting all-time highs on secondary markets. Major collaborations with brands like Pudgy Penguins and Doodles demonstrate the growing appeal of this digital ownership model.

As the TON blockchain ecosystem continues evolving, gaming collectibles emerge as the next frontier, with players already trading rare skins and items even before official marketplaces launch. For entrepreneurs, this represents an unprecedented opportunity to define entirely new categories in an ecosystem where "every product you ship is something entirely new" that could potentially "redefine the whole industry."

This episode was recorded through a Descript call on June 10, 2025. Read the blog article and show notes here: https://webdrie.net/telegrams-nft-revolution-the-rise-of-digital-collectibles/

Alex:

So collectibles on Telegram have this built-in utility from the get-go. They are very easy to flex, they have their place within the Telegram ecosystem and they always will be.

Joeri:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Billast and I'm your podcast host, and today I'm really excited to be joined by Alex Alex. How are you? Hey, hey, how are you? Yeah, I'm your podcast host and today I'm really excited to be joined by Alex Alex. How are you?

Alex:

Hey, hey, how are you? Yeah, I'm all good, Very glad to be here and excited to talk about all things dogs, stickers and everything in between.

Joeri:

Yes, amazing guys. I met Alex at MEMECON actually. Actually, it was NFC summit at the telegram stage. I was speaking myself at mimcon, but you, you were at. I think it was ton of people, the side event, right yeah.

Alex:

So I think this year ton for those of you who don't know what ton is uh is the uh blockchain that is integrated with telegram. And they decided to go all in on this particular conference because we believe that, you know, NFTs on TORN are kind of the next meta. So they invested heavily into making sure that that event in particular is a success. So they took quite a bit of space at that particular event in lisbon yeah, amazing guys.

Joeri:

If you are now wondering is alex. Alex is actually the cmo from dogs and open builders and I I was present at his talk, actually, um, so yes, to to start with alex, I'm I'm wondering um, so you mentioned already dogs, so what was actually the original inside pain point, if I can call it like that, that sparked the idea behind dogs and nft sticker store?

Alex:

so well, just to kind of to start with, dogs and the stickers are slightly different kind of entities and the dogs were born from originally, from a sketch that Padal Durov, the founder of Telegram, has drawn himself actually, and it was an image of a dog indeed that we kind of re-imagined. And that particular image is very special for us and, I think, for CIS community in general, because it was drawn for a charity auction and that charity was raising funds for underfunded orphanages, well, I think, across the world, but obviously in CIS in particular, and that particular image, that particular narrative kind of strikes a chord with us very strongly and that's why we kind of carry on with this charity narrative further. So it was born from that image that was very famous in Telegram communities and was kind of a natural mascot in a way, and we turned that into something bigger, more of a movement, if you will, and you know, our, our community grew, you know, to to millions in just a matter of days and weeks and kind of. You know, our original, original journey was rather quick, in a way that from opening, you know, our first, first telegram group, first channel, to listing on binance, and took us what? Two months. So it was. It was rather, rather fast and rather exciting journey, to be honest.

Alex:

Uh, with the stickers, however, while this also is a dogs plus not coin or open builders project, and and this, unironically, I guess, also stems from Padel Douro's vision, because he once said at Token 2049 that he believes that stickers on Telegram should be tokenized and we absolutely agree with that vision. The way we implemented that, that there are collections from the outside, large nft collections and large, uh, you know, web 2 collections actually that want to list uh their own sticker. That would be limited, that would be mintable, we create those stickers for them, but we share the revenues with the original ip owner and I guess this is one of the things that makes it so different from, for example, telegram gifts that are completely made by telegram, but there is very little kind of room for the outside creators and outside brands to come and, you know, introduce these, these um collections, onto onto telegram yeah, I think you mentioned it in your talk.

Joeri:

You mentioned it right now outside brands, so web2 brands or web2 people, I think you mentioned it is a simple onboarding for web2 users into the the tone ecosystem. So, uh, yeah, how does it then work in practice, I think. Why is it working?

Alex:

um, the thing is, you know, telegram has what's? Over 1 billion active users, and that is an incredible achievement. But how many of those are active crypto users? That is a big question. And I think for non-crypto uh, native, non-crypto active users, telegram becomes a great bridge to you know this exciting Web3 world because, a it's integrated with the wallet already. B because of the mini apps, the whole kind of you know, torn ecosystem has grown to incredible, incredible levels. So onboarding through tools that users already know and already use and that are natively integrated into Telegram is incredibly powerful. However, that doesn't mean that if the tools themselves are very easy to use, they will instantly become DeFi users who understand all the ins and outs of how the ecosystem works. They would, you know, trade on decentralized exchanges, etc. So this onboarding should be gradual, should be easy for them to understand, and meme coins have always been one of the gateways for that, and I think dogs onboarded so many different people from around the world, actually, that you know people who, after that, they never left the ecosystem, they kept on. You know, trading meme coins, they started looking at wallets, they explored the centralized exchanges as well.

Alex:

Now stickers, in a way, have certain elements that are similar to meme coins in what way? First, they have very strong narratives. Many of the stickers are coming either from already established brands or the brands that are building up their communities, so they are kind of things that are easy to to understand, to, to touch in a way. You know you use your stickers in your everyday discussions, in your Telegram channels, in your closed groups, etc. So in a way that is a very easy way to get on board, similar to GIFs, right? You see how some people are wearing flash VAPs on their usernames or how you know others decorate their profile and stuff like that. Stickers, in a way, are driving the similar narrative here how you know they're collectible, they are easy to flex and have this kind of utility. That is almost built in Now.

Alex:

As far as you as as um onboarding goes, obviously it's great that we work with some of the greatest nft collections. We have three collections that are there. We we work with pudgy penguins, we work with doodles, we work with uh, you know, obviously dogs are part of the stickers and narrative. But I am maybe even equally more excited about listing some of the web 2 ips, because that bridges again that gap from people you know who haven't touched that ecosystem, who have never seen what web 3 world is, they get easily onboarded by the brands that they already believe in, and whether those are cartoons there were a couple of great examples of that whether those are some brands from fashion or from sports world, these are effectively the brands that they trust and know, and it's not about the demand for those stickers or something, but it's more about them.

Alex:

You know the demand for those stickers or something, but it's more about them. You know getting on board and into these communities of Web3, or getting into those communities of Web3 users who are already existing on Telegram at mass yeah, you mentioned it, the emotional emojis on like extents, right.

Alex:

But I think what actually is so powerful about stickers in particular is that people have organically started doing, started creating closed chats for owners of a particular sticker, so they basically organically gather a group of like-minded people who are fans of that particular brand. But they are all already also kind of onboarded onto Web3, or they have just joined the revolution. And it's cool because, like they, you know, obviously in these groups you will always see a certain number of people who are the OGs, who have been, who have seen you know, obviously in these groups you will always see a certain number of people who are the OGs who have been, who have seen, you know, bitcoin at 15,000, I guess. And then you see people who, just, you know, joined, made their first transaction in Torn yesterday. This educational kind of support from the OGs helping you know people to not, you know, not tilt, not worry if you know some politician releases, some news, or if you know your floor, price drops. But at the same way, the way they coordinate things they do is incredible. I think many meme coins would be jealous to see this kind of coordination because they come and do twitter raids of a particular you know blogger or whatever if they want to get attention, or they start inviting people onto those chats that they think will help promote them and they build bots to kind of gate the access to this chat and stuff like that. So they build their own merch.

Alex:

I've seen some dogs merch like stickers. Stickers, dogs merch coming from these groups and all these things. They kind of they are created organically. There is nothing in a good or bad way. We've done nothing to kind of of. We support them, we acknowledge them, but it's all the kind of the drive comes from the community itself. We're trying not to interrupt it, the kind of organic beauty of it. And I think it's incredible because people start meeting up in real life. They, they fly to, you know, meet each other across the globe just because they believe, you know, in that particular brand. That that's a stick narrative, I think. I think it's very powerful on the narrative.

Joeri:

Really important is the, the design of these digital collectibles also important. Scarcity about that. Does that play a role?

Alex:

I think obviously you know, if you have experience with nfts, you would. You would expect that scarcity is something that every nft is is kind of. It's important for a nft collection, of course. But I think it's not just the scarcity itself that drives them, it's not even just like the design. Well, they're good. We don't release stickers with bad designs. We try not to outsource that anyway. So most of the designs are made by our internal team. It's costly but it's worth it.

Alex:

But I think it's more of a feel of the community, right, what kind of people that particular narrative attracts. And if you launch a collaboration with, like a football club tomorrow, I'm pretty sure that most of the owners of that club, of that sorry, of that sticker, would be fans of that, of that club. Maybe not all of them, some of them would be. You know, just just kind of passes by. But what I do want to see is actually more and more people getting behind it, more because of the brand and not just because of the. You know the potential, the potential revenue uptake. That being said, like I think most of the sticker holders are happy with the, with the premiums they are traded at right now. I think I've seen not coin stickers got 44,000% uptake in price recently. Some of the others have smaller, but smaller like 500%. Still a decent, very decent premium, if you ask me. So I think these days in the trading, volumes on secondary markets hit their all-time high just yesterday on secondary markets hit their all-time high just yesterday. So pretty sure that at this point obviously it's a market so it can go up and can go down and there could be a dip, but it could also skyrocket.

Alex:

I'm pretty sure that it's only the beginning, just because of how many really good brands we have lined up, of what we have planned in terms of the trading in the mints of those stickers. But I'm glad to see that even before that the market's thriving. I think many of the people who have missed the kind of their, their early plush pepe purchase they are now looking like okay. So stickers still have a very limited supply, incredibly limited. Compared to a Telegram gift, they're very scarce, but then they are also the entry point is very low, like it is relatively cheap. So they start looking at you know the prices, the narrative. They're like aha, that's probably the next one. So they're jumping into it and I've seen one big chinese whale, for example, in that secret chat for one of the stickers, and it looks like these guys know, know what's happening.

Joeri:

they, it seems like they know what, what they should be doing now well, now it's interesting, uh, to see it like maybe that's the nft era is back here. You got some people, a lot of people are burned by nfts and now, now they hear this, what would you tell to say to those people? How are stickers different from like the nfts, like we know them?

Alex:

I think, uh think, and I hope I'm helping Telegram here, but I think it's not just the stickers, but the whole. Collectibles on Telegram are very different from the regular NFT, if you think about it. And don't get me wrong, I had some of the NFTs back in the day and I liked them. Some of them dropped in price, others I managed to sell at some point. But uh, that's not. That's not the point here. The point is for me to show, to prove that I actually own a certain nft, and to kind of flex it in a way was quite a challenge. If it sits somewhere in my uh wallet, it's very hard for me to prove that I own it. Therefore, to flex it, therefore for the price to be justified at the level that it was, and there's something not that easy. At the same time, collectibles that can be flexed and you know I made a comparison to, you know number plates that you know the most expensive one, I think, was sold and like to buy for 50 mil or something. So collectibles on Telegram have this built-in utility from the get-go. They are very easy to flex, they have their place within the Telegram ecosystem and they always will be, and that is, I think what made anonymous numbers so popular. Look at their floor now it's skyrocketing. That's what made usernames on Tone so popular, and people, especially on Telegram, are gradually coming towards this ownership of all of the assets that you have on Telegram, and that goes for, yes, numbers, usernames, obviously, gifts and stickers. You know, in a way it's just a more exciting gift. You're like, you still can use them within your test, your telegram, you know your channels, etc. But they are just a little bit more fun. They are more scarce they are. They are created together with actual brands that people want to see there from for the communities that already exist on telegram. So I think the digital ownership on telegram is what makes these nfts so much and, in general, collectibles so much different. And that goes also, like also for the next level of collectibles because, um, I think if you look at gaming in general early skins for uh weapons in uh cs go, for example, they go for crazy money. These days, early skins uh are traded at at premiums you haven't seen for for a long time. Now on telegram there is also something that exists gaming and the more modern version of Telegram, the updated version of Telegram. It allows you to build games that are basically like Fortnite. I've played it and it's incredible. So these games, they start looking at ways to monetize these skins inside the game, create collectibles as well, and that's what Not Games is all about.

Alex:

Right, it's a platform that's in a way similar to Steam, where there is a list of games that you can play, there are squads, but there are also rare items that are collectibles. On Tom Surprise, they are tradable, uh, and people already, even before the market is launched, people already trading these items, otc. So I've seen hundreds just overnight, hundreds of sales of these rare skins for the games and cards for the games that people are trading, uh, with you know, garantor or something, because the market, they're still waiting for the market and that means that you know there is definitely demand for this and you know all these narratives with the skins and then crafting, so you gather like a few of the items and you can craft a better one, more rare one. The loot boxes is kind of again the next step, together with stickers, that we think is going to drive this market kind of further.

Joeri:

Well, yeah, the games. That aspect is really interesting. But I want to come back to these big brands, because you know Telegram has a lot of users, they have a lot of reach. But how are you convincing those big brands to launch stickers? What do you say? What is in it for them? How do you pitch it the value of this format to these big brands?

Alex:

obviously it's a. It's a good question because, to be honest, it's not necessarily an easy job, the reason being, I think some of the brands back in the day were burned by the NFT hype and how it's, you know, ended up. Others are just, in general, very conservative. They think that if they come and launch something like that or how would their you know core audience react? And, and you know, if you give them examples, if you give a web 2 brand, an example of a web 3 brand who's already on board, they wouldn't really care like say, you are, I'm coming, you know it's, it's out of the blue, a random, random brand. So, please, for any listeners, this is just an example. So say chanel, uh, we come to them and we say hey, hey, look, we already have Pudgy Penguins and Doodles who've launched a very successful collection that was sold for millions of dollars and they are traded with a huge premium. Come and launch a stick of dust. Would they care?

Alex:

Short answer is no, and because you know they don't know about the Web3 brands, they don't necessarily communicate with them that much and so it's a very different approach there you need to talk about, you know, their existing fans on Telegram community that you know they would be able to speak to that audience directly, is that they would create something very unique that not no one has created before. That they, uh, you know it's not diluting their brand, but rather enhancing it, showing it as a brand that is a forward thinker, of a brand that you know if they don't join the revolution now, it will be too late for them in a year's time. So, uh, but you don't, you know, all of those statements are true. By the way, it's not like we're not sugarcoating it in any kind of way. Look at the Chimpers launch yesterday.

Alex:

I know they're another Web3 collection, but the point I'm making here is slightly different here. So they are not Telegram native IP, but because there are people on Telegram who love them because of how, you know, they show that they are behind this you know collection that they thought was, you know us random people sold out in less than one minute, and that happens with most of the collections that understand this kind of importance. It's not just about one drop, a quick box, move on. But if you're about to kind of building a longer term community on there, it will pay out big time.

Joeri:

A lot of potential really in there. I'm now wondering a question I always like to ask, alex, because you are very passionate about what you are doing. But what are you now the most excited about? You know what is happening in the community. What is happening with, what is happening with dogs?

Alex:

I'm curious um, I think the one of the most exciting things here is that we're so early and you feel like you know, sometimes I visit ethereum conferences and no hard feelings about ethereum, but that blockchain, for example, is so the, the project we're launching there, for example. There, you know, you build some layer 10 or something. It's something. It's a bit more granular, whereas on Torn, just because we're still early, because it's a very hungry community, hungry for innovation, we kind of we can redefine the whole bloody narrative and I think that's quite cool.

Alex:

Everything you do, even with a small team, it just you know you're the first at something every day. Every product you build is the first of its kind. It's incredible, it's challenging because you need. It's not like you know, when you build a 10th delivery service, like for delivery products, whatever, like you say, oh, this is whatever. Like you say, oh, this is the next uber or this is the next whatever. Here it's like every single product you ship is something entirely new and it could either fail miserably or it will be redefining the whole industry, the whole kind of blockchain, for a long time. So far, we have been moderately successful, I would say, with not coin, with dogs, with the sticker pack. I think most of these launches have indeed contributed a lot to the ecosystem, and this kind of very entrepreneurial spirit is what drives both me and I think.

Joeri:

The blockchain itself, like ton ton, is full of entrepreneurs, and I think this potential to be the first at everything is what drives most of the people here yeah, it seems really motivating because there are a lot of entrepreneurs listening here, alex, and if they are now okay, they're really now excited to do something with Don what is the advice you would give them?

Alex:

Where should they start? I think like I'll start with what they shouldn't do. They shouldn't launch a tap to earn game, because that narrative has come and gone and again, don't get me wrong. I think at the time it was a very cool option to onboard people with something that is incredibly simple. You don't have to do much. Just because everyone believed that there is this friction between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 onboarding, it's very hard to build this trust. It's very, very hard to build this trust. And if they have to go through very complex steps of creating extra wallets, doing something very comprehensive, you would lose a lot of people because they don't have the patience. So that's up to them. It had its place in the ecosystem. I just think that it's long gone now. Where to start?

Alex:

Look, I think there are many, many, many different avenues that you can definitely explore within Telegram. Obviously, the mini apps are, you know, the center, the core of how Telegram tutorial ecosystem is growing so and it's so easy to build one and it's wide easy to build a decent audience on that if your narrative clicks as well because, like, it becomes viral with all the tools like share to stories, share to you know, subscribe, to channel. Whatever this the virality kind of potential is is very unique here compared to many other blockchains. So look at how many apps are built, look at what's the new meta, because something very different really appears every week here. I look at the new apps every single week. I see, oh, this is something I haven't seen here. And thanks again, thanks to Telegram for enabling the builders, with you know, with all the tools, we need to succeed here.

Joeri:

Absolutely Well. That's a great positive message here at the end of the episode. Alex, if people want you know, to learn more about dogs, about everything you're doing, where would you like me to send them?

Alex:

Obviously, we have our Telegram channel at dogs, but, yes, more than welcome to come and talk to me. I try to cover all the things that are happening on Tom, more or less sometimes biased, and I cover the things that I'm more excited more, but whenever there is a narrative that is more unique and that I need to look at, I would always cover that as well. So go find me on Twitter at Alex Cryptobuzz as well.

Joeri:

Amazing. It will be mentioned in the show notes, as always. My listeners know they can go there. They can read everything and find information that you mentioned Also your Twitter link. Alex, it was really a pleasure to have you on the show today likewise.

Alex:

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, guys what an interesting episode.

Joeri:

You know, if you are into web3 or interested in web3 and everything that is going on in this wonderful world, check out, yeah, check out talks, check out what is going on over there, but also share this episode with people around you if you think they can have some value out of it. This is also a really good moment to hit the subscribe button on the podcast because, yeah, if you and if you haven't given me a review yet, also that would be a great moment to do this. Five stars would help me reach an even bigger audience. Thanks so much and, yeah, see you next time. Take care, thank you.

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