The price of Toncoin (TON) jumped in response to Pavel Durov's announcement about renaming the native cryptocurrency of the blockchain to Gram. Within 24 hours, the asset's price soared from $1.89 to $2.26 (+19.5%).
As of this writing, the price of TON has adjusted to $2.
Hourly chart of TON/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView.The founder of Telegram explained that the rebranding is the fourth step in the Make TON Great Again (MTONGA) initiative. He stated that the transition back to the historical name Gram will take about three weeks, while the network itself will retain the name The Open Network (TON).
“We are going back to our roots — and starting a new chapter. This change will pave the way for what comes next,” Durov said.
At the same time, a website for Gram was launched. Just hours before Durov's post, a vote appeared on TON Vote regarding the renaming of the ticker from TON to GRAM, but it was quickly removed. Later, the main vote was posted on the platform.
A debate has erupted within the community: according to "Durov's Code," some users fear that the outcome of the vote could be disproportionately influenced by large holders.
One of the wallets voting for the rebranding holds about 1.5 million TON — roughly $3.3 million. This address may be linked to a miner's wallet from which nearly 45 million TON were withdrawn in 2020.
According to "Durov's Code," in the first 15 minutes of the current vote, nearly 90% of wallets opposed the rebranding. Most of these were addresses with small balances, collectively holding TON worth $578,866.
The History of Gram
The name Gram refers to the original Telegram Open Network project that Durov attempted to launch between 2018 and 2020. At that time, the company raised $1.7 billion from accredited investors through SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens) deals.
However, in 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained a temporary injunction against the distribution of tokens. The regulator insisted that Gram constituted unregistered securities, and the Howey test should apply to the entire investment scheme, including secondary resale.
In 2020, a court in the Southern District of New York sided with the SEC, stating that the initial token sale was part of a single investment contract. As a result of regulatory pressure, Durov officially ceased participation in the development of TON, returned some funds to investors, and the project was handed over to an independent community of developers and later renamed Toncoin.
It is worth noting that in May, Durov claimed that TON was leading among L1 networks in transaction finalization.