Pavel Durov has revealed the next step in the MTONGA roadmap: a community vote to rename Toncoin to “GRAM,” the token’s original name from the TON White Paper. The blockchain will still be TON.
Why change the name back to GRAM?
The irony behind this name change is that when Telegram originally designed TON, the native token was always called Gram. But after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit in 2020, Telegram distanced itself, and the community relaunched the project as “Toncoin” with the ticker TON.
Now that Telegram has taken a leading role again (making the chain 10 times faster and fees 6 times lower), Durov wants to restore the original identity. “GRAM” never left the codebase; it just never got used on the surface. For instance, this vote is about correcting history, not changing technology. As a simple example, think of it as rebranding a car back to its original model name while the engine stays exactly the same.
What do users need to take into account?
- First: no action required. If the vote passes, TON becomes GRAM automatically. No swap, no migration, no clicking sketchy links. Pavel Durov explicitly warned: “Any site asking you to ‘claim GRAM’ or ‘migrate TON’ is fraudulent.” Scammers will absolutely use this news to drain wallets.
- Second: the vote runs for 7 days on ton.vote. Currently, over 1.74 million TON have voted in favor (80.2 percent majority). But nothing is final until the timer ends (Jun 08, 2026 16:00 UTC).
- Third: exchanges will handle the ticker change automatically; you won’t lose your holdings or need to lift a finger.
What’s next on the TON roadmap?
This is step 4 of the MTONGA roadmap (a playful nod to “Mongolia” and TON’s expansion). Previous steps included performance upgrades, fee reductions, and validator improvements. After the vote, assuming it passes, expect wallets, explorers, and exchanges to update the ticker from TON to GRAM over the following weeks. The roadmap also hints at further ecosystem growth in Asia and deeper Telegram integration. But for now, the biggest change is symbolic: reclaiming the original name that Satoshi-style white paper envisioned.