TON Community Votes to Rename Toncoin to Gram

The Open Network community is voting on one of the most symbolic changes in the blockchain's history: renaming its native token from Toncoin (TON) to Gram (GRAM).

At first glance, it looks like a simple rebrand. In reality, supporters say it represents something much larger—a recognition of how dramatically the network has evolved since Telegram re-emerged as a central force behind TON's development.

The proposal is currently live on TON Vote and would change only the token's name and ticker. The blockchain itself would continue to be known as TON, or The Open Network.

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Why Bring Back Gram?

For early followers of Telegram's blockchain ambitions, Gram was the original name of TON's native currency.

When Telegram first unveiled its blockchain vision in 2018, the token was called Gram. Although regulatory challenges forced Telegram to step away from the project, the community continued developing the network independently under the TON name.

Now, proponents believe the ecosystem has reached a point where reconnecting with those roots makes sense.

According to the proposal, Gram never truly disappeared. The name has remained embedded within parts of TON's core codebase since the network's earliest days.

Supporters argue that bringing it back publicly reflects both the project's heritage and the next stage of its evolution.

Telegram Is Taking a Bigger Role

The proposal arrives amid growing alignment between Telegram and TON.

In recent months, Telegram has become increasingly involved in the network's direction, infrastructure, and ecosystem development. The proposal itself describes Telegram as a leading force behind TON's current trajectory and future roadmap.

That influence has coincided with a series of major technical upgrades.

According to the proposal, the network has become approximately 10 times faster, transaction fees have fallen by roughly six times, and user transactions can now be processed in under a second.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov recently highlighted another milestone, announcing a new developer toolchain designed to dramatically simplify building on TON.

"Developing for TON just became 10x faster," Durov wrote on X. "The new toolchain makes smart contracts easy to create, test, and deploy. Most importantly, fully AI-ready."

The updated development environment consolidates TON's previously fragmented tooling into a unified workflow, making the network significantly more accessible to developers and AI-assisted coding environments.

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What Changes for Users?

Very little. If approved, the native token would simply be displayed as GRAM instead of TON.

Wallet balances remain unchanged. Smart contracts continue operating normally. NFTs, staking positions, DeFi protocols, and token holdings are unaffected.

A wallet containing 100 TON today would simply show 100 GRAM after the transition. No swap, migration, bridge, claim process, or token conversion would be required.

The proposal repeatedly warns users that any website or service asking them to swap TON for GRAM would be fraudulent.

TON Remains TON

One of the most important details is that the blockchain itself is not being renamed.

TON continues to refer to The Open Network, its infrastructure, validators, ecosystem, and applications.

GRAM would simply become the name of the native asset powering that network.

In effect, the proposal creates a clearer distinction between the blockchain and its currency while reconnecting the token with its original identity.

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More Than a Rebrand

The vote arrives at a pivotal moment for TON.

The network now sits at the center of Telegram's broader blockchain strategy, with direct access to one of the largest messaging platforms in the world. Combined with major performance upgrades, growing developer activity, and deeper Telegram integration, TON is positioning itself for a significantly larger role in crypto's next phase.

Whether the community approves the proposal remains to be seen.

But if the vote passes, one of the most recognizable names from crypto's early history could soon return.

And Toncoin may once again be known simply as Gram.