Educational material. Not financial advice.

Data as of June 11, 2026.

What's this about?

Toncoin (TON) is the native token of The Open Network blockchain, originally created by the Telegram team in 2018. After Telegram was forced out in 2020 under SEC pressure, the network continued to operate under the independent TON Foundation. In May 2026, Telegram officially returned to the project, becoming the largest validator in the network. On June 3, 2026, Pavel Durov announced a rebranding of the token: Toncoin is being renamed to Gram (ticker GRAM) — a return to its original name from the 2018 white paper. At the time of publication, CryptoRank already reflects the asset under the name 'Gram (prev. Toncoin)'.

Basic figures

Current token name: Gram (formerly - Toncoin) Ticker: GRAM (formerly - TON) Price: $1.71 Market cap: $4.58 billion FDV: $8.91 billion 24h trading volume: $165.35 million Volume-to-cap ratio: ~3.6% Ranking: #21 (CryptoRank) ATH: $8.26 (June 15, 2024) Deviation from ATH: -79.2% ATL: $0.7534 (June 18, 2022) Circulating supply: 2.67 billion (51.5% of total) Total supply: ~5.19 billion Maximum supply: unlimited (inflationary model, ~0.6% per year) Blockchain: proprietary (TON Blockchain, sharded L1) Explorer: tonviewer.com

How the product works

Architecture

TON is a sharded L1 blockchain designed from the ground up for scaling to a billion users. The architecture entails a hierarchy of chains: master chain + work chains, each of which shards as load increases. After the Catchain 2.0 upgrade (April 2026), transaction finality is ~400 ms with an average fee of $0.0005.

Technical specifications (as of the date of analysis)

  • Block finality: ~0.4–0.6 seconds (after Catchain 2.0)

  • Average fee: $0.0005 (reduced by 6 times after the upgrade)

  • Smart contract language: Tolk (statically typed language for TON VM)

  • Theoretical throughput: millions of TPS with horizontal sharding

Integration with Telegram

Telegram acts as a native distribution channel: integrated TON Wallet, TON Connect for wallet authorization, Telegram Stars as a payment unit for in-app payments. In January 2025, TON became the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for Telegram Mini Apps. According to the TON Foundation, over 800 million active Telegram users have access to TON payments and wallets through the messenger interface.

Ecosystem tools

  • TON Pay - payment infrastructure for instant transactions in Telegram

  • AgentKit - toolkit for AI agents with on-chain wallets

  • Acton - CLI for smart contract development and deployment

  • BotFather - built-in Telegram tool for creating bots with native support for TON withdrawal (7.3M MAU as of 2026)

Team

Pavel Durov - founder of Telegram, ideological leader of TON

Positive facts:

  • Co-founder of VKontakte (sold stake in 2014)

  • Founder of Telegram (2013) - one of the most popular messengers worldwide with 800M+ active users

  • Announced the MTONGA plan (Make TON Great Again) in May 2026 - a new phase of involving Telegram in network development

Negative facts and legal stories:

  • 2019–2020 - SEC filed a lawsuit against Telegram, accusing it of conducting an unregistered sale of securities (Gram ICO, $1.7 billion). In March 2020, the court issued a preliminary injunction. In May 2020, Telegram settled the lawsuit: returned $1.22 billion to investors and paid a $18.5 million fine to the SEC.

  • August 2024 - Durov arrested in France on charges related to improper content moderation in Telegram (terrorism, drug trafficking, child exploitation). Released on bail; the case continues.

  • 2026 - Russia initiated a criminal case against Durov, accusing him of aiding terrorist activity; Russia periodically restricted Telegram traffic to 55% of capacity.

Public activity: Active in the Telegram channel (@durov), regularly makes technical announcements. In 2025–2026, significantly increased activity in the context of MTONGA.

Nikolai Durov - technical co-founder

  • Architect of the technical base of TON and Telegram

  • Not publicly active, rarely appears in public

Management status in 2026

Since April–May 2026, Telegram has officially become the largest validator of TON, staking 2.2 million tokens, and has effectively taken on key functions of the TON Foundation. At the same time, legally Telegram and the TON Foundation remain separate entities. This change signifies a de-facto return of control to the founders.

Funding

Original ICO (2018)

In 2018, Telegram conducted the largest private ICO at that time: raised $1.7 billion from investors for the future Gram token. After losing the SEC case, the entire amount was returned to investors (2020).

VC investments through the open market (2025)

TON Foundation revealed that several of the largest venture funds acquired TON totaling over $400 million - not through a direct round, but by buying from early holders. Investors include: Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Benchmark, Kingsway, Vy Capital, Draper Associates, Libertus Capital, CoinFund, Hypersphere, SkyBridge, Karatage.

Important clarification: according to TON Foundation, this is not a traditional investment round, but market purchases from existing holders.

TONcoin.Fund

$250 million - a specialized fund for investing in projects built on the TON Blockchain.

Supply distribution

Toncoin does not have a standard TGE with allocations. Tokens were initially distributed through mining (ICO frozen, mined by nodes). According to available data from 2026:

  • ~68% of the total supply is concentrated in large wallets (source: CoinStats AI, independent assessment)

  • TON Believers Fund - unlocking 36.59 million TON monthly, distributions planned until October 2028 ($75 million/month at May 2026 prices)

  • ~0.6% annual inflation - new tokens are added through validator subsidies, part of the fees are burned, but do not fully offset the emission

  • There is no maximum supply - the network is inflationary with a partial burning mechanism

Project metrics

Team statements / official publications of the TON Foundation

  • 800M+ Telegram users with access to TON wallets

  • In July 2025, the integrated TON Wallet was deployed for ~87M Telegram users in the USA

  • $192 million in staking inflows in the week after Telegram returned as a validator (network record)

Independently confirmed

  • 52.1 million - activated on-chain wallets (tonstat.com, April 2026)

  • 155,000 - average daily active wallets (tonstat.com)

  • 2.16 million - daily transactions (tonstat.com)

  • 1.78 million - monthly active wallets (tonstat.com)

  • $56–82 million - TVL in DeFi protocols on TON (DeFiLlama, April–May 2026)

  • $580 million - the volume of USDT out of $770 million total stablecoin supply on TON (May 2026, DeFiLlama)

  • 7.3M MAU in BotFather at the start of 2026 (source: Telegram data, cited in partnership materials)

Important note

TVL on TON has sharply decreased from a peak of ~$800 million in mid-2024 to ~$56–82 million by April–May 2026 (source: DeFiLlama). This significant drop is not emphasized in official communications from the TON Foundation. The gap between the number of wallets (52M) and real DeFi activity ($56M TVL) indicates that most wallets are used for storage or minimal transactions, rather than for complex financial operations.

Market context

This section describes the market environment of the token. It does not contain trading signals, forecasts, or entry assessments.

Price dynamics

  • 24 hours: -0.8%

  • From ATH ($8.26, June 15, 2024): -79.2%

  • From ATL ($0.7534, June 18, 2022): +127.7%

Significant price events

  • May 2024 - peak of ecosystem hype and ATH $8.26

  • End of 2024 - beginning of 2025 - correction to the range of $1.5–3

  • March 2025 - disclosure of $400M VC purchases: brief growth

  • May 2026 - announcement of MTONGA and return of Telegram as a validator: +30% in 24 hours

  • June 2026 - rebranding to Gram: +15% in one day according to several sources

Listings and liquidity

GRAM/TON is traded on all major CEXs: Binance, OKX, Bybit, Coinbase, Kraken. Futures are available on Binance, Bybit, OKX. The volume-to-cap ratio (~3.6%) is moderate.

Competitive analysis

TON competes in the high-performance L1 blockchain segment, but with a unique differentiating point - integration with Telegram.

Solana (SOL) - cap ~$80–100 billion

  • Model: high-performance L1, focus on DeFi, memecoin, NFT ecosystem, and trading

  • Users / activity: hundreds of thousands of DAU, multi-billion DeFi TVL (source: DeFiLlama)

  • Stronger than TON: developed DeFi ecosystem, high liquidity, strong third-party developer narrative, independence from a single messenger

  • Weaker than TON: no built-in user channel on the scale of Telegram; infrastructure has gone down multiple times (outages)

BNB Chain (BNB) - cap ~$80–90 billion

  • Model: Binance ecosystem - DeFi, dApps, listings; close relationship with CEX

  • Users / activity: high transaction activity, centralized ecosystem

  • Stronger than TON: powerful liquidity and support from Binance; established DeFi market

  • Weaker than TON: centralization at the Binance level; no organic distribution channel outside the exchange

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) - cap $3–7 billion (varied in 2025–2026)

  • Model: L1 with a focus on 'Chain Abstraction' and AI narrative

  • Users: hundreds of thousands of transactions per day based on on-chain data

  • Stronger than TON: aggressive positioning in the AI segment; diversified ecosystem

  • Weaker than TON: lacks a distribution channel of comparable scale

Avalanche (AVAX) - cap ~$10–15 billion

  • Model: L1 with a subnet architecture for corporate implementation

  • Users / TVL: DeFi TVL $1–3 billion according to DeFiLlama

  • Stronger than TON: corporate partnerships, institutional reputation

  • Weaker than TON: lacks consumer reach of the messenger

Substantive difference between TON/GRAM

A unique structural advantage - an integrated distribution channel through Telegram with 800M+ users who already have access to the wallet in a familiar interface. No competing L1 has a comparable consumer reach without the need to install a separate app. The question is not whether this advantage exists, but whether it translates into real DeFi activity and user retention - the current TVL of $56–82M indicates that conversion remains low.

Partnerships and ecosystem

Confirmed partnerships:

  • Telegram - the largest validator of the network (since April/May 2026), native wallet integration, Mini Apps, TON Connect, Telegram Stars

  • Tether / USDT on TON - the largest stablecoin in the ecosystem ($580M out of $770M total volume, May 2026)

  • Rakuten Wallet (April 2026) - adding GRAM/TON for spot trading on the Japanese regulated platform

  • SCRYPT - Swiss-regulated USDT-on-TON access for businesses

  • Fireblocks + Dynamic - corporate wallet infrastructure for Telegram financial products

  • Cocoon (CCON) - a decentralized AI computing network on TON, launched on mainnet December 2025; GPU owners receive GRAM, Telegram routes light AI tasks (transfers, summarization) through Cocoon

  • xStocks, Ethena - RWA and synthetic assets in the Telegram wallet

Ecosystem fund:

  • TONcoin.Fund ($250M) - investments in projects on the TON Blockchain

Key dates in project development

2018

  • Telegram conducts a private ICO: raised $1.7 billion for the Gram token

  • Start of TON blockchain development by the Durov brothers and the team

2019

  • October - SEC files a lawsuit against Telegram (unregistered sale of securities)

2020

  • March - court bans the distribution of Gram tokens

  • May - settlement: Telegram returns $1.22 billion, pays $18.5M fine

  • Telegram hands over the code to an independent developer community

2021

  • Mainnet launched by an independent community as The Open Network (TON), token Toncoin (TON)

2022–2023

  • Gradual growth of the ecosystem, first DeFi protocols

  • June 2022 - ATL: $0.7534

2024

  • January - TON becomes the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for Telegram Mini Apps

  • June 2024 - ATH: $8.26

  • August 2024 - Durov arrested in France

2025

  • March - disclosure of $400M+ in VC purchases from the open market

  • July - integrated TON Wallet deployed for ~87M American Telegram users

  • December - launch of Cocoon on mainnet

2026

  • April - Catchain 2.0: finality ~400 ms, fees reduced by 6 times

  • April–May - Telegram stakes 2.2M TON, becomes the largest validator

  • May - announcement of the MTONGA plan, +30% to the price in 24 hours

  • June 3 - Durov announces rebranding TON → Gram (GRAM)

In development (according to team statements):

  • TON Pay 2.0 (Q2 2026) - Layer 2 payment system for instant transactions in Telegram

  • AppKit (Q2 2026) - a full set of tools for Mini Apps developers

  • TON Teleport Bridge (mid-2026) - trustless bridge for bringing Bitcoin liquidity into the ecosystem

Sentiment and community

Activity on platforms

  • Telegram: official channel @ton_blockchain; the TON community is widely present in the Telegram ecosystem (self-reinforcing effect of the messenger)

  • Discord: separate server for developers and community

  • Twitter/X: @ton_blockchain - official account

Market sentiment

Telegram's return as a validator in May 2026 and rebranding to Gram in June 2026 created short-term narrative catalysts. The MTONGA plan set a significant positive signal for the community after a long downturn from the ATH of 2024.

Open interest in TON futures maintained a moderate level in 2026.

Organic growth vs narrative

  • Arguments for organic growth: a real base of 52M wallets; daily 2.16M transactions; USDT-on-TON $580M - a measure of real usage

  • Narrative: a significant portion of activity in TON wallets consists of Telegram casual micropayments and gaming transactions (Telegram mini-games), not financially significant DeFi operations

  • Key discrepancy: 52M wallets with $56–82M DeFi TVL = an average of less than $2 per wallet. Comparison with Solana (~$20+ billion TVL with a smaller user base) demonstrates the gap.

Risks

France: criminal case for improper content moderation in Telegram (terrorism, child exploitation, drugs) continues since August 2024. Durov released on bail; however, the case is not closed. Russia: criminal prosecution for aiding terrorism, periodic traffic restrictions on Telegram. Since MTONGA directly tied Durov's reputation to the development of TON/GRAM, any negative outcome in these cases poses a direct risk to the token.

🔴 High: centralization through Telegram validation

Since May 2026, Telegram has been the largest validator of the network. The project, which initially transitioned to an 'independent community' due to regulatory pressure, is again under the control of a single actor. This creates both regulatory risk (potential new SEC lawsuit regarding GRAM classification as a security) and technical risk of a single point of failure in network governance.

🔴 High: regular unlocks from the TON Believers Fund

36.59 million tokens per month ($75 million at May 2026 prices) will be unlocked from the TON Believers Fund until October 2028. This is a constant supply for sale, exerting structural pressure on the price for over two years.

🟠 Medium: degradation of DeFi TVL

Decline in TVL from a peak of ~$800M (2024) to ~$56–82M (April–May 2026) - a fall of more than 90% from the maximum. Most DeFi protocols have left the top listings on DeFiLlama after incentive programs expired. This indicates that the ecosystem has not yet developed organic DeFi activity independent of incentives.

🟠 Medium: rebranding → GRAM and operational risks

Renaming the token with a long history (Toncoin, 2021–2026) to Gram creates operational challenges: updating integrations on exchanges, adapting users, legal issues in markets where 'Gram' was the name of the token in the SEC case of 2019. Some infrastructure partners may require additional time for adaptation.

🟠 Medium: supply concentration

According to analysts, ~68% of the supply is concentrated in large wallets (source: CoinStats AI). However, there is no transparent public classification of these wallets (team, early investors, ecosystem funds, dormant wallets from the mining era).

🟡 Moderate: conversion of Telegram users to DeFi activity

Despite having 800M+ Telegram users, the real conversion to DeFi users remains extremely low. Most interactions are just USDT storage, casual mini-game transactions, and micropayments, not complex financial products. The MTONGA plan aims to change this, but results have not been achieved by the time of analysis.

🟢 Low: technical infrastructure and performance

After Catchain 2.0, the network demonstrates high performance (~400 ms finality, $0.0005 fees). TON has virtually had no significant network failures in its public history. The sharded architecture theoretically allows scaling significantly beyond current loads.

Development scenarios

Description of the conditions under which each scenario may be realized. It is not an assessment of probability or a recommendation.

Bull scenario - conditions for realization:

  • TON Pay 2.0 and TON Teleport Bitcoin Bridge launch on schedule and receive significant adoption: stablecoin activity and DeFi TVL begin to grow quarter over quarter

  • Legal cases against Durov are resolved without restrictions on Telegram's operations

  • Rebranding to Gram strengthens the narrative of the 'original vision' and attracts a new wave of attention

  • Telegram reaches 30% conversion of active users to on-chain interaction by 2027–2028 (goal of the TON Foundation)

  • Confirming signals: DeFi TVL growth above $300M on DeFiLlama; wallet DAU growth above 500K; new large institutional partnerships

Base scenario - inertial development:

  • MTONGA upgrades are being implemented, but DeFi TVL is growing slowly - $100–200M by the end of 2026

  • Cases against Durov continue without sharp escalations

  • Monthly unlocks from the TON Believers Fund continue to exert moderate pressure

  • Telegram remains the largest validator, the ecosystem is growing organically within the messenger

  • Confirming signals: stable DAU metric for wallets; moderate growth in stablecoin TVL; absence of new SEC actions

Bear scenario - conditions for realization:

  • Criminal case in France ends for Durov with significant operational limitations; Telegram loses operational independence or users in key jurisdictions

  • SEC initiates a new case against GRAM as a security - based on Telegram's reintegration into network management

  • TON Believers Fund exerts more pressure on the price than expected - large holders begin to liquidate positions alongside unlocks

  • MTONGA upgrades are delayed or fail to gain traction

  • Confirming signals: decline in wallet DAU; outflow of VC from positions; official regulatory communications against GRAM

Open questions for further observation

  1. Will the rebranding of TON → Gram create legal complications in the USA, where 'Gram' is a name from the undisclosed SEC case of 2019?

  2. Will the MTONGA infrastructure (TON Pay 2.0, TON Teleport) convert into measurable growth of DeFi TVL by the end of 2026?

  3. How will Durov's criminal case in France conclude and what does it mean for Telegram's operational independence?

  4. Will the pricing of GRAM withstand monthly unlocks of ~$75M from the TON Believers Fund against the backdrop of current liquidity?

  5. Will the centralization of Telegram as the largest validator be interpreted by regulators as a restoration of Telegram's control over the token - and what consequences does this create?

  6. Will the ecosystem achieve 30% conversion of Telegram users by 2028 - or will it remain a marketing thesis?

Sources

CryptoRank, CoinMarketCap, DeFiLlama, Blockonomi, CoinGecko, CryptoNews, AInvest, Wikipedia (TON Blockchain), The Big Whale, CoinDesk, Crypto.news, TonStat, MEXC News, CoinStats AI, CCN, Bitget News, OurCryptoTalk

This material is a fundamental analysis of the cryptocurrency project for educational purposes. It is not financial, investment, or trading advice. It is not an offer to buy or sell assets. Cryptocurrencies carry a high risk of capital loss. Any decisions regarding asset actions are made by the reader independently and at their own risk.

#TON