Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on June 1 that The Open Network’s native cryptocurrency, Toncoin (TON), will be renamed to Gram over the next three weeks. The decision, shared via Durov’s personal Telegram channel, revives the original asset name from the project’s 2018 whitepaper, an identity blocked by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) six years ago. Following the post, the token climbed 19% to an intraday high of $2.21, while 24-hour spot volume doubled to roughly $575 million.
Returning to the Project’s Roots
“TON’s native currency is becoming Gram,” Durov wrote, framing the rebrand as a return to the blockchain’s founding vision. The change marks “step 4 of 7 to Make TON Great Again,” a strategic roadmap Durov has pushed since Telegram assumed direct operational control of the network from the Switzerland-based TON Foundation in May 2026.
Prior steps in this initiative focused heavily on protocol optimization and network economics, including deploying Catchain 2.0 for sub-second block finality and slashing base transaction fees sixfold. Telegram also became the network’s largest validator by staking millions of tokens through its native messenger infrastructure. Steps five through seven have not yet been detailed.
Rebrand Mechanics and Legal History
The transition operates as a structural rebrand rather than an on-chain token swap. The network will retain the name The Open Network (TON), and the process requires no immediate action from holders, validators, or DeFi protocols. Existing balances will seamlessly transition to the new GRAM ticker once external exchanges and wallets update their interfaces.
Reviving the Gram moniker reintroduces a complex regulatory history. In 2018, Telegram raised $1.7 billion across two private presale rounds for the original Gram token. In October 2019, the SEC halted the launch, declaring the ecosystem’s fundraising model an unregistered securities offering. A June 2020 settlement forced Telegram to pay an $18.5 million civil penalty and return $1.2 billion to investors. Independent developers later revived the open-source codebase, launching it as Toncoin in 2021 to distance the asset from the active litigation.
Market Impact and Regulatory Risks
The digital asset market responded aggressively to the announcement, pushing the token up from its pre-announcement baseline of $1.83. This continuation builds on a broader rally triggered by May’s validator takeover, which drove the asset from $1.30 to a $2.80 peak before stabilizing.
However, the abrupt change presents operational and regulatory friction points. A pure renaming alters neither token issuance schedules nor underlying utility. Furthermore, the announcement lacked official transition documentation, explicit exchange integration schedules, or a companion statement from the TON Foundation. Reintroducing the Gram name could also invite renewed regulatory scrutiny from US authorities, even though the token represents an active legacy asset rather than a fresh capital raise. Interface cutovers are expected to conclude across global trading desks by mid-June.
