TON price soars 13% as Telegram revives original Gram token brand

The price of Toncoin surged more than 13% within 24 hours after Telegram announced a major branding shift that brings back the token’s original name, “Gram.”

After long shelving its crypto network plans amid regulatory scrutiny, Telegram has taken control of The Open Network.

The rebranding news sent the token to a high of $2.26 before settling around $2.09. The rally extends an already strong monthly performance, with TON now up roughly 58% over the past 30 days.

Telegram revives Gram name as TON transition begins across wallets and exchanges

The latest price movement followed an announcement from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Monday. According to the executive, The Open Network’s native cryptocurrency, TON, will be renamed Gram, reverting to the original name proposed in the project’s first white paper as part of his ongoing “Make TON Great Again (MTONGA)” initiative.

“Gram was the original name of TON’s currency in the first white paper,” he wrote. “We’re returning to our roots—and starting a new chapter. This rebranding will pave the way for what comes next.”

Although the token will use the Gram name, Telegram added that the underlying blockchain network The Open Network, will continue to be named TON. 

The transition will take around three weeks, and we expect that to happen in a phased manner, across wallets, exchanges, and ecosystem apps, Durov said. He said that was the next step on what he called “MTONGA.”

The announcement comes at the same time as Telegram is expanding its involvement in the TON ecosystem. In May, Durov announced Telegram had become the largest validator on the network and that the TON Foundation is no longer the main driver of Telegram itself.

And it has made other technical changes to improve network performance, including lower transaction fees and faster block times to achieve higher throughput.

Gram comeback accelerates as Telegram reduces fees and assumes a larger role 

Six years ago, in May 2020, the SEC forced Telegram to return $1.22 billion to Gram token investors and pay $18.5 million in penalties, killing the original Telegram Open Network.

The 2026 takeover brings Telegram back into the same blockchain ecosystem through the front door, this time under a more favorable regulatory climate and with nearly 950 million users forming a built-in distribution network.

The rebrand is the fourth of seven steps planned for Durov’s MTONGA campaign, but the remaining three steps have not yet been publicly disclosed.

Durov first detailed the transition in April, when he celebrated a network upgrade that made TON “ten times faster” and introduced sub-second transaction settling.

The other two steps that were revealed were reducing transaction fees by roughly sixfold and announcing plans for Telegram to replace the TON Foundation as the ecosystem’s primary steward and largest validator.

The Gram rebranding restores the name originally conceived by Telegram’s blockchain project, which stood for TON, an acronym of Telegram Open Network at the time, and its native Gram cryptocurrency.

Telegram launched its TON project in 2018 but abandoned it in 2020 after a heated legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission forced Telegram to cease the sale of Gram tokens, which it said violated securities laws.

This triggered a slew of lawsuits from investors seeking refunds for their token purchases.

Later, independent developers took over the project and continued to use the TON name as The Open Network, and the blockchain has now been integrated into Telegram’s ecosystem of apps, mostly for payments and digital asset trading.

The renewed branding push raises questions about how exchanges, developers, and wallet providers will have to adapt to the shift from TON-branded tokens to Gram. While the underlying network remains unchanged, rebranding efforts in crypto ecosystems often involve coordination challenges across platforms, user interfaces, and smart contract references.

Still, the market momentum suggests traders are getting more concerned with narrative strength than technical friction. Telegram’s growing validator role, the improving network performance, and a return to the original Gram identity have provided a strong short-term bullish catalyst.

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