TON Price Pumps After Telegram CEO Says Token Will Be Rebranded to Gram

Years after abandoning its crypto network plans in the face of regulatory scrutiny, Telegram has taken control of The Open Network—and now plans to embrace the original planned name for the Toncoin (TON) token.

On Monday, Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov wrote on his official channel that Toncoin will be rebranded as Gram, the original proposed name for Telegram's native token before the project was scrapped and taken over by community developers.

"Gram was the original name of TON’s currency in the first white paper," he wrote. "We’re returning to our roots—and starting a new chapter. This rebranding will pave the way for what comes next."

Durov said that The Open Network will retain its TON branding, despite the token name shift, and that the process would take about three weeks. He called it the latest step in a process dubbed "Make TON Great Again."

The biggest previous step was arguably Durov's May announcement that Telegram itself would "[replace] the TON Foundation as the driving force behind TON and [become] its largest validator." The network also slashed transaction fees and boosted the block rate to process transactions more rapidly.

The market appeared to respond positively to Durov's announcement, with the price of TON jumping more than 13% in the last day to a recent price of $2.12. It rose as high as $2.26 earlier in the day.