The Open Network is planning to rename its Toncoin (TON) cryptocurrency to Gram — the original name used in the network's 2018 whitepaper — sending the token surging more than 15% from approximately $1.95 to above $2.25 in late Monday trading. The token has since pulled back to around $2.07 as of Tuesday morning."Gram was the original name of TON's currency in the first white paper," Telegram and TON founder Pavel Durov posted on Telegram. "We're returning to our roots — and starting a new chapter."A name with historyThe rebrand to Gram is not arbitrary — it is a deliberate revival of the token's original identity. Telegram launched the TON project in 2018 with Gram as the currency name, but was forced to abandon it after the US Securities and Exchange Commission blocked the network's $1.7 billion initial coin offering in 2020, threatening legal action that ultimately caused Telegram to withdraw from the project entirely. The project was later revived independently as The Open Network before Telegram re-engaged as the network's primary driver and largest validator in May 2026.Reclaiming the Gram name is therefore both a symbolic homecoming and a statement of confidence — the project that the SEC once halted is now large enough, legitimized enough, and strategically positioned enough to restore its original identity without fear of regulatory interference.No token swap requiredThe Open Network launched a community vote on the rebrand proposal Monday, and the technical structure of the transition is deliberately simple. There is no swap, migration, bridge, claim, or conversion required. Every balance, address, contract, and position stays exactly as it currently is. The change is purely cosmetic at the smart contract level — the token ticker and name update, the underlying infrastructure does not.At the time of writing, approximately 1.8 million TON — nearly 80% of votes cast — were pledged in favor of the rebrand. The transition is expected to take around three weeks.Part of the "Make TON Great Again" roadmapThe rebrand is the fourth stage of Durov's "Make TON Great Again" roadmap. The first three stages delivered earlier in 2026 included an upgrade to Catchain in April to boost blockchain speed to sub-second finality, a reduction in transaction fees, and Telegram's formal takeover as the network's primary validator. The rebrand follows those infrastructure improvements as a public-facing milestone."These changes mark a milestone for the network — and a natural moment to refresh how the token is known publicly," TON stated.The endgame of the roadmap is ambitious: to power a seamless Web3 super app experience inside Telegram for its one billion users, turning the messaging platform into a global infrastructure layer for payments, mini-apps, digital ownership, AI agent interactions, and more. With Telegram already hosting hundreds of mini-apps and having integrated TON-based payments, the rebrand to Gram is designed to make that infrastructure feel more native and consumer-friendly as adoption scales.Context: still 75% below all-time highsDespite the 15% surge on the announcement, Gram — or TON as it remains at the time of writing — is still down approximately 75% from its June 2024 all-time high of $8.25 according to CoinGecko. The token's Monday move stands out in a broader crypto market that has been under significant pressure, with Bitcoin falling to two-month lows near $70,000 and most altcoins declining alongside it.The rebrand provides a specific narrative catalyst at a moment when the broader market has few positive stories — and for a token tied to Telegram's one billion user base, the combination of infrastructure upgrades and a revived original identity may attract both retail and institutional attention that the project has struggled to sustain since its 2024 peak.
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