Earlier this month, Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app, confirmed plans to rename the native token of the TON blockchain from Toncoin (TON) to Gram (GRAM). The project’s official rebranding took place on the 15th. However, the initial rise in the coin’s price, driven by the hype surrounding the event, did not last even for a short time, according to RBC.
Although GRAM rose by more than 20% following the June 1 announcement, briefly climbing to nearly $2.3, by June 5 all of that gains had been wiped out, and the price had fallen to $1.45. On June 19, GRAM was trading at $1.61.
The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization stood at $4.32 billion, placing it 21st in CoinMarketCap’s ranking of the largest cryptocurrencies. Since the start of the week, the price has fallen by 8%, and since the start of the month, it has plummeted by 15%. Since the beginning of the year, the price has remained virtually unchanged.
Over longer periods, the price has also shown no significant upward movement. The price peaked in the summer of 2024, when GRAM was trading at $8.24 per coin—since then, it has fallen by about 80%. The current price level is in line with levels observed in 2021–2023.
However, some experts highlight GRAM as one of the few cryptocurrencies backed by a real business with actual revenue—Telegram. This is believed to set the project apart from most other cryptocurrencies.
After months of negative price trends, the GRAM price rebounded in early May when Durov called for “Make TON Great Again” (MTONGA).
In May, Durov actively published statistics on the Gram blockchain’s performance metrics. At the same time, he announced that the Telegram team would take over from the non-profit TON Foundation as the driving force behind the project. These events coincided with the coin’s price rising by more than 100% over four days to $2.9, followed by a virtually non-reversible correction.
