TON has become GRAM: what will change for users?
On June 15, a landmark event took place for the Toncoin ecosystem: the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain platform was renamed GRAM*. The Toncoin team announced this in its official channel following the publication of the results of an open vote.
* GRAM was chosen as the original name of the cryptocurrency before the Telegram Open Network (TON) project was officially shut down in 2020, transferred to an independent team of developers, and its asset was eventually renamed Toncoin (TON).
TON has become GRAM: what is behind the ecosystem rebranding?
Pavel Durov, the project's founder and head of Telegram, announced plans to rebrand TON as GRAM on June 1, 2026. An official vote was then launched on The Open Network (TON) website, allowing all Toncoin (TON) holders to participate.
According to Pavel Durov himself, renaming TON as GRAM represents a return to the project's roots. TON was renamed GRAM as part of the large-scale integration of The Open Network (TON) and Telegram. This is the fourth of seven steps in a phased plan called "Make TON Great Again."
TON became GRAM immediately after Telegram joined the nonprofit TON Foundation and launched its own validators on The Open Network.
Durov has not yet officially announced the team's next step under the "Make TON Great Again" plan. The cryptocurrency community assumes that it may involve closer integration between Telegram's built-in Wallet and the GRAM cryptocurrency.
What happened to The Open Network ecosystem after TON was renamed GRAM?
The fact that TON became GRAM had virtually no impact on The Open Network or the performance of its native asset. On the day TON was renamed GRAM, the cryptocurrency's price, according to CoinMarketCap, increased by only approximately 6% — from $1.70 to $1.80. However, media reports noted that on certain cryptocurrency exchanges, the price of the cryptocurrency temporarily surged by 85% to $2.49.
At the same time, five days after the rebranding, the price of the GRAM token fell by more than 16% to $1.50. As of early July 2026, GRAM is valued at $1.67. The token's market capitalization stood at $4.54 billion, down more than 6% since TON was renamed GRAM.
The Open Network (TON) platform itself remains among the world's 20 largest blockchains by market capitalization, slightly behind Canton and Bitcoin Cash. At the same time, the GRAM cryptocurrency remains well below its all-time high set in June 2024, trading almost 80% below that level.
The rebranding of TON as GRAM coincided with major technical changes to the network. Shortly before TON became GRAM, the developers announced that the blockchain's performance had increased approximately tenfold, while transaction fees had fallen almost sixfold.
Back in May 2026, Pavel Durov stated that TON had become the leading Layer 1 blockchain in terms of transaction finality speed. According to test results, this figure reached 0.6 seconds on the TON network, which is 40% faster than Avalanche, the second-ranked blockchain in the performance rating.
TON is now GRAM: what does this mean for investors?
The rebranding only means that the cryptocurrency has been renamed. Neither the number nor the format of the tokens has changed: 1 TON is equivalent to 1 GRAM.
At the same time, investors are not required to take any action involving the TON and GRAM cryptocurrencies, such as swaps, cross-chain transfers, or migration.
The Toncoin team also warned holders that all user assets and data remain unchanged following the rebranding. This applies to balances, funds held in staking, non-fungible tokens, addresses, smart contracts, and open positions in the DeFi market. Therefore, any calls to exchange, transfer, or otherwise "update" TON and GRAM should be regarded as a potential scam attempt.
All TON tokens were automatically renamed to GRAM in wallets and exchange accounts. To display the new name, if this has not happened automatically, users simply need to update their cryptocurrency wallet to the latest version.
In other words, only the tickers displayed in wallets, on monitoring platforms, and in exchange quotations involving GRAM trading pairs have changed, while everything else has remained unchanged.
The functions of the token have also remained unchanged, and holders of the former TON can still do the following after the ecosystem rebranding:
- Stake the cryptocurrency;
- Add it to liquidity mining and farming pools;
- Participate in voting;
- Transfer assets between wallets, including to other networks;
- Exchange them for other digital assets, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs).