Gram (formerly branded Toncoin) is the native coin of the TON blockchain (The Open Network), an independent Layer-1 not compatible with EVM chains or Solana. On June 15, 2026, the token was renamed from Toncoin/TON back to Gram, its original 2018 whitepaper name, following an on-chain governance vote.
The rebrand changed only the name, ticker, and logo, with no token swap and no change to wallet balances or contracts. The chain traces to a 2017-2018 project built by Telegram's engineering team and today operates as an open, community-validated network with over 4.77 million holder addresses as of 2026-08-31.
Gram's differentiation rests on its origin as Telegram's blockchain, giving it a large built-in messaging user base. Since April-May 2026, it has gained direct integration priority under Telegram's Make TON Great Again roadmap, which reportedly cut network transaction fees roughly sixfold.
Ecosystem usage remains modest relative to market size: total value locked across TON dApps is about $605.73 million, with 30-day protocol fees of $94,692 and revenue of $47,346, alongside roughly 109,000-114,000 daily active addresses as of 2026-08-31. Gram captures this activity as the chain's native gas and staking asset.
Gram functions primarily as a utility and staking token rather than a governance token. Holders use it to pay transaction fees on the TON blockchain, stake it with validators to help secure the network under proof-of-stake-style consensus, and hold it as working capital within TON dApps.
It is not primarily a voting instrument for protocol parameters; broader resource-allocation input has instead been organized through TON Foundation's Society DAO structure. Publicly listed treasury company TON Strategy Company (Nasdaq: TONX) stakes a large Gram position as its core business.
Circulating supply is approximately 2.78 billion GRAM, with total supply near 5.2 billion GRAM, as of 2026-08-31.
Net emission trends inflationary: an approximately 6% EMA supply-growth rate is driven by ongoing validator staking-reward issuance rather than a fixed disinflationary schedule.
The token launched via a 2018 private ICO in which Telegram Group Inc. and subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. raised $1.7 billion across two presale rounds. The rounds sold about 2.9 billion Gram tokens to 171 purchasers worldwide, including over 1 billion Grams to 39 U.S. purchasers, without a public sale.
The SEC sued Telegram in October 2019 over unregistered securities; Telegram settled in 2020, returning over $1.2 billion to investors, paying an $18.5 million penalty, and abandoning direct development. An independent community relaunched the chain in 2021 as The Open Network, renaming the coin Toncoin, years after the 2017-2018 founding.
Gram is the native coin of the TON blockchain (The Open Network), an independent Layer-1 that is not EVM-compatible and not Solana. The network runs proof-of-stake-style consensus secured by a community-operated validator set rather than miners.
Since April-May 2026, Telegram itself has become the network's single largest validator under Pavel Durov's Make TON Great Again roadmap, reportedly staking around 2.2 million GRAM. Bridged wrapped versions of the coin circulate on other chains but are distinct from the native asset.
TON was originally designed in 2017 by Nikolai Durov, Telegram co-founder and brother of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who was also centrally involved from the outset. Telegram's own engineering team built the network over the following years.
After Telegram exited direct development in 2020, an independent developer community revived the project in 2021. TON Foundation appointed Maximilian Crown, a co-founder of MoonPay, as its CEO around April 2025. Starting in 2026, Pavel Durov personally began leading network development again through the Make TON Great Again roadmap, with Telegram's team as the primary contributor.
Gram has no single corporate issuer today. Telegram Group Inc. and subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. originally financed and promoted the 2018 token sale, but after the SEC-mandated shutdown in 2020 the network became open-source and community-run.
TON Foundation, a registered Swiss non-profit, has since stewarded the network, funded by community contributions rather than a corporate parent. In 2026, Telegram re-entered a de facto steering role as lead developer and largest validator under the MTONGA roadmap, without any new token issuance. TON Strategy Company (Nasdaq: TONX) is a separate, publicly listed treasury holder, not an issuer.
Gram's network is governed through a mix of community-operated validators and Foundation-led structures rather than a single on-chain vote covering all decisions. TON Foundation introduced a Society DAO model with four founding member organizations intended to shift resource-allocation power toward the broader community over time.
A narrow on-chain vote specifically renamed Toncoin to Gram on June 15, 2026, passing with 81.22% support. By contrast, Telegram's 2026 takeover of development and validation leadership was not put to a comparable community vote, marking a re-centralization of influence toward Telegram and Durov.
Since April-May 2026, Pavel Durov has led a seven-step Make TON Great Again (MTONGA) roadmap under which Telegram became the network's primary development driver and largest validator. Network transaction fees reportedly fell about sixfold under the initiative.
The June 15, 2026 governance vote executed the Toncoin-to-Gram rename, completed across major exchanges by early July 2026, including Binance's 1:1 conversion on July 2, 2026. In its Q2 2026 earnings, reported August 2026, TON Strategy Company disclosed $15 million in quarterly staking revenue and increased Gram treasury holdings.
CertiK, under a partnership with TON Foundation, has audited core TON infrastructure, including formal verification of the consensus module (catchain), TON's system smart contracts, and its vesting wallet contracts.
A separate CertiK review of Tact, TON's smart-contract language, flagged real risks: a non-standard address-format scheme inconsistent with the TEP-74 token standard that could cause failed transactions or lost tokens, and concurrency/transaction-ordering issues exploitable via timing attacks. Holder concentration is notable: the top 10 addresses have held roughly 62% of supply, and the top 100 over 92%.