Toncoin (TON) is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network (TON), a proof-of-stake blockchain closely tied to the messaging app Telegram. It pays transaction fees, is staked by validators to secure the network, and is used for payments, tips and purchases inside Telegram and its mini apps. In June 2026, after a community vote, the coin was renamed Gram, with the ticker GRAM, returning to the name Telegram had given it in 2018; balances carried over one for one and the network kept the name TON.
The blockchain began as a Telegram project, was abandoned by the company in 2020 after a court fight with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and was then kept alive by independent developers. Telegram later embraced it again. The coin is separate from the dollar stablecoins that also run on the network, such as Tether (USDT), which Tether began issuing natively on TON in April 2024.
Toncoin in plain terms
Picture a messaging app with a wallet stitched into it. Sending money to a friend works much like sending a photo: pick the contact, type an amount and press send. Behind the scenes the transfer is recorded on a public ledger and the coin used to pay the tiny processing fee is Toncoin.
The ledger is built to stay quick when millions of people use it at once. It can split itself into many parallel lanes when traffic is heavy and merge them again when it eases, a little like a supermarket opening extra checkouts at the busiest hour. People who hold the coin can lock some of it up to help run those checkouts and earn a small reward in return.
History
Telegram's founders, the brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, planned the Telegram Open Network as a blockchain for the app's users. In early 2018 Telegram raised about $1.7 billion from investors in two private rounds for future Gram tokens, one of the largest token sales of the initial coin offering era. In October 2019 the SEC obtained an emergency order to stop the distribution, arguing that Grams were unregistered securities, and in March 2020 a federal judge in New York agreed and blocked the launch. Telegram abandoned the project in May 2020 and in June 2020 settled, agreeing to return about $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million penalty without admitting or denying the allegations. Independent developers continued the open-source code as The Open Network, called its coin Toncoin and formed the TON Foundation. Telegram re-engaged from 2022: its @wallet bot allowed transfers in chats, in September 2023 it chose TON as its Web3 partner and built a self-custody wallet into the app, and in 2024 mini-app games such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat drew millions of new users to the chain.
How it works
Validators lock a large stake of Toncoin, several hundred thousand coins at a minimum, to take part in producing blocks, and agree on each block using a Byzantine fault tolerant protocol called Catchain. The network is organised as a masterchain, which records the overall state, plus workchains that can split into many shardchains when load rises and merge when it falls. Every account is a smart contract. Smaller holders can join staking pools or use liquid staking services to earn part of the rewards.
Supply and fee burning
About 5 billion Toncoin were created when the network launched. New coins are issued as validator rewards at roughly 0.6 percent of supply a year, and since a June 2023 validator vote half of every transaction fee is burned. The net change in supply over a year is therefore:
- is the net number of new coins added in the year.
- is the total supply at the start of the year.
- is the annual issuance rate paid to validators.
- is the total transaction fees paid during the year, half of which are destroyed.
With a supply of 5.1 billion, an issuance rate of 0.6 percent and fees of 10 million coins, issuance is 5.1 billion × 0.006 = 30.6 million, the burn is 0.5 × 10 million = 5 million, and supply grows by about 25.6 million coins, or 0.5 percent. The figures are illustrative.
Telegram's role
The link with Telegram is both the network's main strength and its main risk. On 21 January 2025 Telegram announced that TON would be the only blockchain supported for its mini apps, requiring apps that use crypto to move to TON by 21 February 2025 and to connect wallets through TON Connect. The coin is used to buy Telegram usernames and to pay for advertising. When Pavel Durov was detained at Le Bourget airport near Paris on 24 August 2024, the coin's price fell sharply; he was later placed under formal investigation in France over alleged criminal activity on the app and released on €5 million bail.
Regulation and criticism
The Telegram case remains one of the clearest examples of how US securities law applies to token sales: the court looked at how the coins were sold and what buyers expected, the approach of the Howey Test, rather than at the technology. Exchanges and wallet services that hold the coin for customers must meet licensing and anti-money-laundering rules. Critics point to the concentration of supply in a small number of early wallets, to Telegram's large influence over a network that presents itself as independent, and to the phishing bots and scams that target users inside the app. Token airdrops from mini-app games often lost much of their value after listing.