"Toncoin" (ticker TON) is the name and ticker of the native cryptocurrency of the The Open Network blockchain, which the coin carried from May 2021 to June 2026. Before and after this period, the coin is called Gram (ticker GRAM) — it is one and the same coin that changed its name.
Brief backstory: Gram (2018–2021)#
In 2018, the Telegram team led by Pavel Durov developed the native token of a new blockchain under the name Gram. In October 2019, the SEC blocked the token's distribution to U.S. investors, and in May 2020 Telegram exited the project. An independent community picked up the code and continued developing the network. Read more — Gram and The Open Network.
Renaming to Toncoin (2021)#
In May 2021, the testnet2 test network was promoted to mainnet status, and the native token was renamed from Gram to Toncoin (ticker TON). The renaming distanced the project from the SEC-blocked Gram brand, emphasizing that the network was being developed by an independent community.
The Toncoin era (2021–2026)#
- Distribution via the PoW Giver. After Telegram left, the coins were placed into Proof-of-Work Giver smart contracts, and instructions for obtaining them were published — anyone could participate on equal terms. The distribution lasted about two years and is considered one of the broadest initial distributions among cryptocurrencies with a long history.
- June 2022: mining via the PoW Giver was fully halted; the network switched to Proof-of-Stake — validation is now secured by staking.
- Half of the network's fees are burned — a balancing mechanism between rewarding validators and curbing inflation.
- Adoption during this period: paying fees and staking, paying for Telegram Premium subscriptions, auctioning usernames and numbers on Fragment, buying NFTs on Getgems, and trading on STON.fi and DeDust.
Current tokenomics and the coin's use cases are on the page for the current coin, Gram.
Aftermath: rebrand back to Gram (2026)#
On June 1, 2026, Pavel Durov announced the renaming of the coin Toncoin (TON) → Gram (GRAM) as part of the "Make TON Great Again" campaign. The network itself retains the name The Open Network (TON); there was no token swap or migration — only the coin's name and ticker changed. The decision was ratified by an on-chain vote (~79% in favor, with the window closing on June 8, 2026).
The final timeline of the coin's name: Gram (2018) → Toncoin (2021–2026) → Gram (2026).
Don't confuse#
- The current native coin is Gram (GRAM). This is the same coin that carried the name Toncoin in 2021–2026.
- GRM is a third-party Proof-of-Work Jetton on TON that uses the name "Gram" but is not connected to either Telegram or the native coin.