Pavel Durov renames Toncoin to Gram, token surges 19% to $2.21

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, announced on June 1, 2026, that the TON blockchain’s native cryptocurrency, Toncoin, will be rebranded to its original name, Gram. The decision was revealed in a post on Pavel Durov’s personal Telegram channel shortly after 15:48 UTC, marking a return to the identity established in the project’s initial 2017 white paper. While the token is reverting to its original moniker, the underlying network will retain its name as TON (The Open Network).

The market reacted immediately to the news. The token’s price, which was trading near $1.83 before the post, surged as high as $2.21 according to market data. On the TON/USDT pair, CoinMarketCap recorded a 24-hour rise of approximately 19%. In late trading on Monday, the asset saw another leg up, climbing more than 15% as it moved from around $1.95 to more than $2.25. By the time of reporting on June 2, the price had leveled off at approximately $2.10.

Pavel Durov described the move as a way to “return to our roots” and “start a new chapter” for the ecosystem. The rebranding does not require any technical action from users, such as token swaps, migrations, or claims. Existing balances will remain unchanged and will simply begin trading under the GRAM ticker once various exchanges, wallets, and infrastructure providers update their interfaces. This transition is expected to occur in phases over the next three weeks. This shift comes as investors continue to track how near protocol and other crypto tokens surged during recent market cycles.

Restoring the original vision of the Gram token

The name “Gram” was the original designation for the native currency in the first white paper authored by the Telegram team, including Nikolai Durov, who wrote part of the project’s original codebase. The project faced a significant setback in 2019 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) halted an initial $1.7 billion token offering. After a June 2020 settlement required Telegram to pay an $18.5 million penalty and return $1.2 billion to investors, Pavel Durov shut down the project, which was later revived by an independent community.

The current rebranding is presented as the fourth step in a seven-part roadmap titled “Make TON Great Again.” In early May 2026, Pavel Durov had already announced that Telegram would replace the TON Foundation as the driving force behind the network. As part of that transition, Telegram became the network’s largest validator by staking approximately 2.2 million TON, valued at roughly $2.88 million. This deeper integration mirrors broader industry trends where Brian Armstrong warns finance must move on-chain to remain relevant in the digital age.

Community support and technical milestones in the 2026 roadmap

The community has shown strong support for reclaiming the original branding. As of June 2, 2026, approximately 1.8 million TON—representing nearly 80% of the cast votes—had been pledged in favor of the rebranding in an official community vote. This sentiment follows a month of strong performance for the asset, which is up 60% over the last 30 days. Trading activity reflected this enthusiasm, with 24-hour spot volume reaching $575 million, more than double the volume of the previous session.

Technical upgrades leading up to this point have already significantly altered the network’s performance. On April 9, 2026, a major upgrade activated Catchain 2.0, which reduced block generation times from 2.5 seconds to roughly 400 milliseconds. Following this, on May 1, the network slashed transaction costs to a fixed base fee of approximately $0.0005 per transaction. These improvements are designed to support a user base that now exceeds 1 billion monthly active users on the Telegram messenger platform.

Logistics of the three week Gram transition period

The three-week rollout period will see ecosystem apps and digital wallets updating their displays to reflect the Gram name. The TON Foundation, a non-profit organization registered in Switzerland, continues to support the vision of empowering 500 million users to own their digital identities and assets by 2028. Analysts have noted that the rebranding may help distance the project from its period of litigation while leveraging the original brand recognition among early adopters.

The move provides a sharp contrast to broader market movements, where Bitcoin prices have dropped to $75,406 amid capital shifts toward other technologies. By lowering fees and rebranding, the Telegram-backed network is focusing on high-velocity microtransactions rather than just store-of-value utility. For now, the transition remains purely aesthetic, with no changes to the underlying ledger or smart contract protocols, ensuring that the network’s 10x speed increase remains the primary driver of institutional interest.