Gram (prev. Toncoin)

Telegram began developing TON in 2017 and, through Telegram Group and TON Issuer, raised more than $1.7 billion from 171 private purchasers in 2018. The contracts covered about 2.9 billion future Grams and were meant to finance both a fast, sharded blockchain and Telegram Messenger. As late as January 6, 2020, Telegram warned that no Gram had been issued and the chain remained in beta.

The SEC had sued on October 11, 2019, arguing that delivery into a resale market would complete an unregistered securities offering. After a federal court granted an injunction, Pavel Durov announced on May 12, 2020 that Telegram would not proceed. The settlement announced June 26 required more than $1.2 billion returned and an $18.5 million penalty. It ended the sale; it did not launch the asset.

The released code produced more than one successor. Free TON launched a separate ledger on May 7, 2020 and later took the name Everscale and ticker EVER. It belongs in TON's family tree, but its balances and validator history are not those of today's The Open Network.

Anatoliy Makosov, the developer known as EmelyanenkoK and other contributors organized Newton around Telegram's testnet2. The protocol specification set the initial native supply at 5 billion coins, and Newton's 2021 public request records that proof-of-work giver contracts distributed coins. That mining was a distribution method; proof of stake remained the block consensus. In the request posted on June 23, 2021, the community said it had collectively voted to treat testnet2 as mainnet and asked Telegram to transfer ton.org and the ton-blockchain repository.

TON's live authority sits in masterchain system contracts. Elector chooses validators from stake applications and later distributes fees and block rewards. Config stores network parameters and accepts proposals. Under the current rules, acceptance needs at least three-quarters of validator weight across the required rounds; critical upgrades demand the configured additional wins.

That history includes a temporary shortcut. An emergency key assigned to TON Foundation in 2021 could accelerate fixes, though the documentation says it could not bypass contract rules. It was retired on November 22, 2023 at block 34,312,810. The native coin is also governed at this layer: it is not a jetton with a project owner, and new units arise as validator rewards under changeable configuration. Five billion describes genesis, not an immutable cap.

Telegram's distance from TON narrowed long before its formal return. Channel advertising began using Toncoin for purchases and eligible creator payouts in March 2024. By February 2025, Telegram's rules required blockchain Mini Apps to create assets on TON and connect wallets through TON Connect. Those rules give the chain privileged access to the app, but they do not make Telegram the custodian of every balance: the separately operated Wallet in Telegram still distinguishes custodial Crypto Wallet from the self-custodial DeFi Account.

In May 2026 Durov announced that Telegram would replace TON Foundation as the network's driving force and become its largest validator. A later post spoke of the change as completed and cited 400 validators across six continents, but gave no Telegram stake total. On June 1-8, a balance-weighted community poll then approved restoring the name Gram with 81.22% support. The rename took effect at 12:00 UTC on June 15 without a swap, bridge or contract migration. The name returned; Telegram's cancelled purchase agreements did not.