The Open Network ecosystem has a new — and at the same time well-forgotten old — name. The native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain has been renamed GRAM.
From GRAM to Toncoin — and back again
The Toncoin team announced the renaming on June 15, following the completion of an open vote among cryptocurrency holders. The majority of participants supported the return of the GRAM name.
For the project, this is not merely a new marketing image. Rather, it is an attempt to restore its connection with its original history.
The name GRAM appeared long before Toncoin. It was intended to be the name of the cryptocurrency of the Telegram Open Network blockchain, which the Telegram team began developing in the late 2010s. However, following a dispute with US regulators, the project was officially shut down in 2020.
The technology was subsequently developed further by an independent team of developers. Telegram Open Network became The Open Network, while its cryptocurrency was named Toncoin and assigned the ticker TON. The ecosystem has now effectively come full circle: the asset is once again called GRAM.
Why TON was renamed GRAM
Pavel Durov presented the return of the GRAM name as a move back to the project’s roots. At the same time, the name change became just one stage of a broader strategy related to the integration of Telegram and The Open Network.
The renaming was described as the fourth of seven steps under a plan called “Make TON Great Again.”
By that point, Telegram had already joined the TON Foundation, a non-profit organization, and launched its own validators on the network. This strengthened the connection between the messenger and the blockchain platform, which had previously been formally developed independently.
How the market responded to the return of GRAM
Despite the high-profile announcement, the rebranding did not lead to sustained price growth.
On the day of the renaming, according to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency’s price increased by approximately 6%, from $1.7 to $1.8. On certain platforms, the movement was considerably sharper: media outlets reported a brief price rise to $2.49, an increase of approximately 85%.
However, the effect proved short-lived. Just five days after the rebranding, GRAM had fallen by more than 16%, dropping to approximately $1.5.
In early July 2026, the asset was trading at approximately $1.67, with a market capitalization estimated at $4.54 billion. Since the name change, this figure has decreased by more than 6%.
The Open Network nevertheless remains among the twenty largest blockchain projects by market capitalization, ranking alongside Canton and Bitcoin Cash.
The asset is still far from its all-time high. Its peak price was recorded in June 2024, while the current price remains almost 80% below the record level.
The market reaction shows that a high-profile name alone is not enough to support long-term growth. Investors assess not only the symbolic return to Telegram’s history, but also the network’s actual development: the number of users, developer activity, demand for applications and the prospects for integrating GRAM into the messenger.
Rebranding amid a technical upgrade
The name change coincided with major technical changes to The Open Network.
Shortly before the renaming, the developers reported that the blockchain’s performance had increased approximately tenfold. At the same time, transaction fees were reduced almost sixfold.
In May 2026, Pavel Durov also stated that TON had taken first place among Layer 1 blockchains for transaction finality speed.
According to the published test results, the network confirms transactions in approximately 0.6 seconds. This is 40% faster than Avalanche, which ranked second.
For users, such changes are more important than the rebranding itself. The faster the network processes transactions and the lower the fees, the more convenient it becomes for mass payments, transfers, gaming, digital asset trading, and interaction with decentralized applications.
Is it necessary to exchange TON for GRAM?
For cryptocurrency holders, nothing has fundamentally changed. The rebranding affected only the asset’s name and ticker.
One TON corresponds to one GRAM. The number of tokens (digital assets), their format, and technical characteristics remain unchanged.
Users do not need to:
- exchange TON for GRAM;
- transfer assets to another network;
- connect to a new smart contract;
- send coins to another address;
- complete a special migration procedure.
The changes should appear automatically in wallets, applications, and exchange accounts. If the former name continues to appear in the interface, users only need to update the application to the latest version.
The user’s balance, wallet address and transaction history remain unchanged.
The rebranding also does not affect funds placed in staking, NFTs, smart contracts, and open positions in decentralized financial services.
In practice, a user may simply open their wallet one day and see the new GRAM designation instead of TON. For most holders, that is where all practical changes end.
However, any large-scale name change creates a convenient opportunity for scammers to collect information. The project team issued a separate warning that no action involving tokens is required.
Requests to connect a wallet to a third-party website, sign an unknown transaction, or transfer assets for an “official migration” should be treated as potential fraud.
What can be done with GRAM?
The cryptocurrency’s functions remain unchanged following the renaming. GRAM continues to serve as the primary digital asset of The Open Network ecosystem.
It can be used to pay transaction fees, transfer between wallets, and interact with applications on the network.
GRAM holders can also:
- place the asset in staking and receive rewards;
- add funds to liquidity pools;
- participate in yield farming;
- vote on matters related to the development of the ecosystem;
- transfer assets between wallets and blockchains;
- exchange GRAM for other cryptocurrencies;
- buy and sell NFTs;
- use DeFi services and applications within The Open Network.
Thus, GRAM is not a new token or a separate cryptocurrency. It is the former Toncoin under its historical name.