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Toncoin Surges 19.5% After Rebranding Announcement
The price of Toncoin ($TON) surged after Pavel Durov announced plans to rename the blockchain's native cryptocurrency to Gram. Over the past 24 hours, the token climbed from $1.89 to $2.26, gaining 19.5%.
At the time of writing, TON had pulled back slightly to around $2.
Hourly $TON/USDT chart on the Binance exchange. Source: TradingView.
According to Durov, the rebranding will represent the fourth step in the seven-stage Make $TON Great Again (MTONGA) initiative. The transition to the historic Gram name is expected to take about three weeks, while the blockchain itself will continue to operate under the name The Open Network (TON).
“We are returning to our roots and starting a new chapter. This change will pave the way for what comes next,” Durov stated.
The announcement was accompanied by the launch of a Gram website. Shortly before Durov's post, a community vote regarding changing the ticker from TON to GRAM appeared on the TON voting platform, was briefly removed, and later replaced by the official poll.
Community Debate
The proposal quickly sparked controversy within the community.
Some users argued that large token holders could have a disproportionate influence on the outcome. One wallet supporting the rebranding reportedly holds around 1.5 million TON, worth approximately $3.3 million.
According to reports, nearly 90% of participating wallets opposed the rebranding during the first 15 minutes of voting, although most of those wallets held relatively small balances.
The History of Gram
The name Gram refers to the original Telegram Open Network project that Telegram attempted to launch between 2018 and 2020.
Telegram raised approximately $1.7 billion from accredited investors through SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) agreements.
In 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission successfully obtained a temporary injunction preventing token distribution, arguing that Gram tokens constituted unregistered securities. In 2020, a U.S. federal court sided with the regulator.
As a result, Durov formally withdrew from the project, investors received partial refunds, and development of the network was continued by an independent community of developers. The token was later rebranded as Toncoin.
In May, Durov also claimed that TON had become one of the leading Layer-1 networks in terms of transaction finality speed.
See also: "Bitcoin Falls Below $69,000 as U.S. Stock Market Rallies"
