Toncoin (TON) roared higher on Monday, climbing about 11% and pushing above roughly $2.30 earlier in the day before cooling slightly. The jump came after Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov announced that The Open Network’s native token will be renamed from Toncoin to “Gram” over the next three weeks.
TON Shift To ‘Gram’
Durov said the rebranding is more than marketing. “TON’s native currency is becoming Gram,” he wrote, adding that “Gram was the original name of TON’s currency in the first white paper.”
In his message, he described the move as a return to the network’s roots and the start of what he called “a new chapter.” He also framed the rename as “step 4 of 7 to Make TON Great Again,” referring to a broader roadmap he has disclosed in his personal Telegram channel since May.
Durov stated that the blockchain will remain called TON, and that the three-week transition will not require holders, validators, or DeFi integrations to take action. Existing TON balances, he said, will continue to function normally and will trade under the GRAM ticker once exchanges and wallets update their systems.
As reported by The Defiant, the Gram label carries the heaviest legal baggage in TON’s timeline. Telegram previously raised about $1.7 billion in two presale rounds in 2018 for “Gram” tokens that were never ultimately issued.
Later, in October 2019, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained an emergency action halting the offering, describing it as an unregistered securities sale.
The legal fallout continued into a later resolution. A settlement reached in June 2020 required Telegram to return $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million penalty.
Three More Steps Coming
Durov’s announcement also points to “step 4” as part of a sequence of upgrades he pushed through after taking over validator responsibilities in May. Under those earlier steps, the network rolled out Catchain 2.0, aimed at enabling sub-second block finality.
Durov also highlighted Telegram’s role in validation, saying that Telegram itself became the network’s largest validator with millions of tokens staked via the messenger’s own infrastructure.
Still, there is more to come. Durov said three additional steps remain in his seven-step roadmap, though he has not publicly outlined what those steps will involve.
Since Durov’s announcement earlier in the day, TON trades at $2.11 at the time of writing. Even with the pullback, the token is still showing major gains—up about 56% over the monthly period—though it remains roughly 75% below its all-time high of $8.25.
Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com
