Gram
Gram (GRAM) is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network blockchain. It is used to pay transaction, computation, persistent-storage and network-traffic fees and to participate in proof-of-stake validation.[1]
The currency was called Toncoin with the ticker TON until a community-approved renaming in 2026. The change restored the Gram name originally proposed for Telegram's blockchain project, but it did not create a new asset: existing balances, addresses and transaction histories continued unchanged. The blockchain itself remains named The Open Network and continues to use the abbreviation TON.[2][3]
The current Gram is distinct from the tokens Telegram planned to distribute after its 2018 private offerings. Those Telegram-issued Grams were blocked by a United States court and were never delivered. The present currency arose from the independent community continuation of TON's released code and test network.[4][5]
Telegram-era Gram proposal
Telegram began developing Telegram Open Network in 2017 from a design led by Nikolai Durov. The proposed native currency was named Gram. In two private offerings during 2018, Telegram and its subsidiary TON Issuer sold contractual rights to future Grams to 171 initial purchasers, raising about US$1.7 billion. The offering documents said the proceeds would finance both TON and Telegram Messenger.[6]
The original documents contemplated an initial supply of five billion Grams and described allocations to purchasers, developers and a proposed foundation and reserve. They also described a formula under which the reserve could sell tokens at progressively higher prices. These were plans for the Telegram-era distribution, not mechanisms governing the current community currency.[6]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Telegram and TON Issuer in October 2019, alleging that the purchase agreements and planned resale formed an unregistered securities distribution. On 24 March 2020, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction preventing delivery of the tokens.[4] Pavel Durov announced in May that Telegram was ending its work on TON.[7]
A final judgment approved in June 2020 required US$1.224 billion in disgorgement, with credit for amounts repaid to purchasers, and a US$18.5 million civil penalty. Telegram consented without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations.[4] The planned Telegram-issued Grams were therefore never distributed.
Community-network currency
After Telegram withdrew, independent developers and validators continued the open-source code and the surviving test network. The group that became TON Foundation treated the long-running testnet as a community-operated mainnet.[5] Its native units were initially distributed through proof-of-work “giver” smart contracts. Participants solved computational challenges and submitted solutions to the contracts to receive units.[5]
That mining-like process was an initial distribution method, not the network's consensus mechanism. Block production and validation use proof of stake: validators lock native currency as stake and may receive rewards or penalties according to their participation and conduct.[1] Once the giver contracts were exhausted, the native asset continued in circulation under the name Toncoin.
2026 renaming
In 2026 the TON community approved restoring the name Gram and changing the ticker from TON to GRAM. Maintained TON documentation identifies Gram as the official name after the vote, and the TON Foundation announced the change on 1 June.[2][8]
The renaming did not deploy a replacement token contract or require holders to exchange assets. It was a display and ticker change for the existing native currency: one unit previously displayed as one TON became one GRAM, while balances, account addresses and the underlying blockchain state were unchanged.[3][9]
Third-party adoption was gradual. Binance completed its conversion and opened GRAM-labelled markets on 2 July 2026.[10] Kaiko Indices, by contrast, postponed switching some benchmark symbols after finding that only a limited number of exchanges had completed the coordinated change.[11] Consequently, TON may still appear as an asset ticker in historical records or services that had not yet adopted GRAM; this does not denote a second on-chain currency.
Protocol role and denomination
Gram is part of TON's protocol-level account state rather than a jetton smart contract. Wallets on TON are smart contracts that authorize outgoing messages, while their Gram balances are maintained by validators as part of each account's state.[12]
The network charges Gram for executing smart-contract instructions, storing persistent contract data and carrying messages. Validators and nominators also lock Gram in staking contracts to participate in block validation.[1] One Gram is divided into one billion nanograms; protocol interfaces express balances and transfer amounts as integer numbers of nanograms.[13]
Gram can be transferred directly between TON accounts and used by applications, payment services and smart contracts. Other fungible assets on TON, called jettons, use separate token contracts and should not be confused with the network's native Gram balance.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 “Start here: Gram and fees”, TON Docs. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 “Overview of TON whitepapers”, TON Docs. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Integration FAQ”, TONCO Docs. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 “Telegram to Return $1.2 Billion to Investors and Pay $18.5 Million Penalty to Settle SEC Charges”, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 26 June 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 TON: The Open Network primer, TON Foundation, pp. 8–13 and 25–26. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 SEC v. Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc.: Complaint, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 11 October 2019, pp. 9–16. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “What Was TON And Why It Is Over”, Pavel Durov, 12 May 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “Toncoin → Gram: community vote”, TON Foundation, 1 June 2026. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “Toncoin (TON) renamed to GRAM”, Blockchain.com Support, 15 July 2026. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “Binance has completed the Toncoin rebranding to Gram”, Binance, 2 July 2026. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “Toncoin (TON) to Gram (GRAM) rebrand update”, Kaiko Indices, 15 June 2026. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “How TON wallets work”, TON Docs. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
- ↑ “Numbers”, TON Docs. Retrieved 11 September 2026.