Gram, the renamed Toncoin, rallied roughly 15 percent over two days to trade near $1.65, a move traders traced to Telegram’s new in-app wallet and a clean break above long-standing resistance. The token’s gains came with the wider crypto market nearly flat, a sign buyers were responding to Gram-specific news rather than a broad altcoin wave.
The catalyst arrived on September 28, when Telegram announced a non-custodial Gram Wallet inside the app and rebranded its Walt trading suite. Gram is now the ticker for the token formerly known as Toncoin, while TON stays as the name of the underlying chain. Existing holders keep their coins and addresses. No migration is needed.
Prices moved quickly after the news. Gram traded from about $1.45 at the start of the week toward $1.65, with intraday swings in the $1.5 to $1.7 band. Volume stayed strong on the breakout days. Data providers tracked roughly 3.5 percent additional gains in the most recent 24 hours, putting the two-day tally near 15 percent.
Telegram’s billion-user bet
Pavel Durov said the Gram Wallet is live for a limited group and will reach Telegram’s more than one billion users over the coming weeks. Validators have already approved the wallet’s smart contract on The Open Network. The wallet bot and the Walt interface both support Gram alongside USDT, BTC and other assets.
The setup puts the token at the center of Telegram’s own custody model. Because the wallet is non-custodial, users hold their own keys rather than trusting the company with deposits. That matters for a platform this size: a custodial wallet for a billion users would put Telegram directly in the path of money transmission rules in most major markets.
The naming change also cleared a question that has hung over the project since the 2019 regulator dispute over the original Gram sale. Walt stays a distinct trading and finance brand, though it is deeply connected to the network. The separation keeps trading features at arm’s length from the messenger itself, which counts if regulators ask questions later.
Technicals did the rest
The price work came second. Gram had slid from near $2.90 in May to about $1.30 before recovering. On September 28 the token pushed through $1.63, clearing its 50-day and 100-day moving averages, and leaned on the falling 200-day average around $1.60. Traders on X focused on the $1.54 to $1.55 band, calling it the line that had to hold if the reversal was real.
It held. Gram moved through $1.68 and intraday plans from leveraged traders pointed to targets between $1.69 and $2.00. An U.Today price analysis noted the daily RSI already sat in the 70s, which usually warns of short pullbacks inside a longer uptrend.
Bigger context: Gram’s gain came against a stubborn market. CoinMarketCap’s overview put total crypto market cap up only about 0.22 percent on the week, with altcoins ex-BTC essentially unchanged. Bitcoin dominance moved up a touch, sitting near 59 percent. Nothing in the market aggregates explains a 4 point move in 47 hours for one token, which is what makes the wallet news and the breakout the more likely drivers.
Competing wallets, crowded field
Telegram is not the first messenger to bring crypto to the chat window, but it is the largest to do it with its own chain. The company had earlier attempts at in-app payments, including a TON Space wallet, that built a base of self-custody users in the tens of millions. The new wallet replaces that layer with the Gram branding and, per the announcement, a broader asset list.
Competition comes from both directions. Telegram faces established exchange apps on one side, where users already trade comfortably, and on the other the slow grind of stablecoin payments through dedicated wallets and cards. What Telegram adds is distribution. Nobody in crypto has a billion-user surface with payments built into daily conversation, which is why traders describe the addressable audience as the whole app rather than crypto natives.
For the token itself the appeal is footfall. Wallet installs and payments inside Telegram route fees and activity through The Open Network, the chain that Gram secures. Validators approved the wallet contract in advance, so the network side needed no extra vote once the rollout began.
What GRAM is now
The rebrand also quieted older legal noise. The original Gram token sale was abandoned in 2020 after US regulators objected to Telegram’s larger messaging plans. The chain survived as TON through community developers, and Telegram returned to the ecosystem years later. Calling the token Gram again, with a fresh wallet behind it, separates the new retail product from that history.
Tokenomics did not change with the name. Supply, staking mechanics and inflation all carry over from Toncoin. Exchanges and data providers re-listed the asset under the new ticker, and price histories exist on both sides of the switch, so older charts mix the two eras.
What could go wrong
Risks remain. RSI in the 70s means the token is extended versus its averages. A 15 percent move off one product announcement can fade fast if the staged rollout slips or early users run into problems in production. Support at $1.55 is the level traders quote first; a close back below it would break the setup that drew buyers this week.
There is also execution risk specific to non-custodial wallets at consumer scale. Key recovery, seed phrase handling and scam messaging inside the chat platform are where first-time users lose funds. Telegram will be judged on those incidents, not on chart structure.
The near-term calendar has two items: the pace of the staged wallet rollout, and whether Gram keeps outperforming when the overall market finally moves. The altcoin has run on its own fuel so far. Keeping that premium once broad market volume returns is the test.