GRAM - a new token on the TON blockchain, created by TON developers and enthusiasts, was launched on January 30th.
Since its launch, the price of GRAM skyrocketed 28,000 times - from $0.00000107 to $0.03, peaking at $0.044. Pretty impressive for a simple token that can easily be mined using GPUs.
A “Fun Experiment” That Turned Into a Sensation
GRAM was initially launched as an experiment.
Oleg Oskolsky, GRAM’s creator, wrote on his Telegram channel in February, "I could never imagine that the token I launched as a fun experiment [GRAM] would become such a sensation and capture the attention of the entire TON community, becoming the most decentralized coin on TON with equal distribution.”
GRAM distribution is carried out via GPU mining, making GRAM the first PoW token in the TON blockchain ecosystem. In order to mine the token, you only need a computer, a GPU that supports CUDA or OpenCL drivers, a simple program that you can get from Github, an account on MyTonWallet or TonKeeper and some TON coins for transaction fees.
Miners receive rewards from special smart contracts called "givers" for processing transactions correctly.
The GRAM distribution is limited to 5,000,000,000 tokens. Approximately 1,750,000,000 GRAM have already been mined. Considering the current rate at which people are mining GRAM, it will be fully mined in approximately 700 days, around early January 2026.
The Return of Bitcoin to the Telegram Ecosystem
The token quickly attracted users primarily because of how easy it is to mine. As of March 25 this year, there are over 30,000 GRAM holders in the ecosystem.
The crypto community in the CIS has dubbed GRAM “the Bitcoin on Telegram” because it shares many of its qualities with the legendary token.
For instance, just like Bitcoin, GRAM didn’t have a pre-mine and the coin's creator did not reserve any coins for themselves before mining began. Additionally, the token wasn’t given in big quantities to large investors who could later manipulate its market price.
Since GRAM was created for experimental reasons, its launch wasn’t surrounded by any “false hype” or noise and just like Bitcoin, its surge in value was purely influenced by the community.
Other advantages of the token, as noted by the community, include its super fast transaction speeds and the ability to mine it easily using GPUs without the need to buy expensive ASICs.
This is mainly possible because GRAM is based on the TON blockchain that has a throughput of up to 104,000 transactions per second.
GRAM's architecture also allows for easy integration into Telegram applications and the TON ecosystem, opening up infinite possibilities for distribution and use.
Where to Get GRAM?
GRAM is currently traded on decentralized platforms within the TON ecosystem. You can find it on STON.fi, Ton Diamonds, DeDust, as well as on the Cryptorg Bot on Telegram.
The community also awaits listings on major centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. According to rumors, the token will soon get a listing on MEXC and OKX after users noticed transfers of large batches of GRAM (over one million tokens) to these exchanges.
“Yesterday, the wallets of crypto exchanges OX and MEXC got a deposit of 1 million GRAMS ≈ $80,000, which sparked interest among market participants, especially since GRAM still hasn’t been added to the list of tradable assets on the platforms.”
The name “GRAM” reminds of the main crypto token in Pavel Durov's project – Telegram Open Network (TON), which raised $1.7 billion from a group of large private investors in 2018.
Due to pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Durov was forced to abandon the project, after which he released the code of the unreleased blockchain platform to the public.
Ever since that, the TON project has been in active development by the crypto community. Telegram does not officially manage the TON project anymore but actively supports the initiative to develop the ecosystem.
Officially, the GRAM coin is not associated with Pavel Durov's former project, however, its creator is among the developers who made TON.
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