Dogecoin Labs launches to run MyDoge, DogeOS and Such App under one roof

"No other digital asset has Dogecoin's combination of liquidity, community and cultural reach, and its potential has barely been tapped," Jordan Jefferson, CEO of Dogecoin Labs, said in a press release from Dubai on Oct. 21. Dogecoin Labs, formed in partnership with the Dogecoin Foundation, said it will bring Dogecoin (DOGE) wallet, app and payment services that had been run separately into one organization.

A wallet, an app network and a payments app under one roof

Dogecoin Labs will own and operate three products: MyDoge, a Dogecoin wallet app; DogeOS, a separate EVM-compatible network that lets Ethereum-style apps run on top of Dogecoin; and Such App, which lets merchants accept DOGE. Labs laid out a setup in which developers build apps on DogeOS, users access them through MyDoge and merchants get paid through Such App.

The Dogecoin Foundation is contributing related intellectual property and development teams to Labs, while keeping its role in open-source development support and community work. The Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2014, defends the Dogecoin trademark. Labs said it plans to build Dogecoin products across wallets, payments, trading, decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, artificial intelligence (AI) and social apps.

"Dogecoin Labs creates a focused organization for turning the strength of this community into products people use, while preserving the principles and open development model at the heart of Dogecoin."

Tim Stebbing, Director of Dogecoin Foundation and Dogecoin Labs

House of Doge steps back from its exclusive deal

House of Doge (Nasdaq: HODO), which has served as the Foundation's commercial arm, said in an announcement from Miami on Oct. 22 that it had entered into definitive agreements related to Labs. The company will contribute select product, engineering and commercial operations and related assets to Labs in exchange for a strategic equity stake. It did not disclose the size or value of the stake.

Its prior exclusive commercial agreement with the Foundation was replaced with a new long-term license. Under the license, House of Doge keeps the rights to continue working with 21Shares on the Nasdaq-listed Dogecoin ETF (TDOG), the 2x Long Dogecoin ETF (TXXD) and the Dogecoin ETP listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Labs takes over as the Foundation's official commercial partner. "For shareholders, it creates a more efficient operating model and frees up capital to develop and scale investment products," House of Doge CEO Marco Margiotta said. The company said it will focus on tokenizing alternative investment products and on its strategic investments in sports franchises. Stebbing will move from the House of Doge board to Labs. The transactions are subject to closing conditions.

The apps are still in testing

Of the three products, MyDoge is the one with an established user base. Labs said MyDoge grew to more than 500,000 users without paid acquisition and rolled out a V3 update in recent weeks that connects the wallet to DogeOS apps. DogeOS, however, opened its public testnet on Sept. 30, and no mainnet launch date has been announced. Its developer documentation covers only the test network and test DOGE. Such App's beta supports invoicing and in-person QR payments, and its integration with DogeOS is still at the planning stage.

According to CoinDesk, letting the Dogecoin network itself verify the results of DogeOS apps would require a change to Dogecoin's own rules, and that proposal remains a draft. Labs did not give a timeline for it in the press release.

Dogecoin at 109 won on Upbit, kimchi premium at 0.5%

Dogecoin trades on the Korean won markets of both Upbit and Bithumb. As of 10:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 22, it traded at 109 won on Upbit and 108 won on Bithumb. At the same time, it was at $0.0818 on Binance, down 0.2% over 24 hours, and the Upbit price was about 0.5% above the won-converted Binance price, a gap known as the kimchi premium (the difference between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets). Upbit's 24-hour trading value was about 12.9 billion won. On the morning of Oct. 1, just after the DogeOS testnet opened, Dogecoin traded at 128 won on Upbit.