Toncoin Is Now Gram: What Changed for Telegram Ads in 2026#

If you open ads.telegram.org today, the landing page says you can "pay for your ad with Gram". A year of guides — including many of our own — talked about paying in TON or Toncoin. Nothing broke in between: it is the same coin under a new name. But the rename touches every part of Telegram advertising that involves crypto: the self-serve cabinet, rewards for channel owners, Suggested Posts and the Fragment top-up flow.

Here is what actually changed, what did not, and how it looks in our data.

---

The short version#

• Toncoin became Gram on 15 June 2026. The ticker changed from TON to GRAM. There was no swap and no migration — balances simply carry the new name (@gram).
• The blockchain is still TON. So are TON wallets, TON Space and the "Connect TON" button on Fragment (Pavel Durov).
• Telegram Ads switched its wording in August 2026. The ads.telegram.org landing now says "pay with Gram"; some official pages still say Toncoin.
• For advertisers nothing needs to be redone. Your self-serve cabinet, balance and campaigns stay as they were; the currency label changed.
• For channel owners, ad rewards are paid in Gram (and Stars), processed by Fragment (Telegram ToS).

---

Timeline#

Date	What happened
1 June 2026	Pavel Durov announces that "TON's native currency is becoming Gram" — the name used in the original TON white paper (post)
1–8 June 2026	Community vote on TON Vote; the rename is approved with 81.22% (@gram)
15 June 2026, 12:00 UTC	The rename takes effect: Toncoin → Gram, TON → GRAM
21 July 2026	Durov announces a native non-custodial Gram wallet in every Telegram app (post)
August 2026	ads.telegram.org switches from "pay with TON" to "pay with Gram" (ads.telegram.org)
18 August 2026	Telegram applies for a .gram domain zone, pending ICANN approval (post)
31 August 2026	Gram Wallet opens to a select group of users, with a gradual rollout over the following weeks (post)

---

What changed for advertisers#

The name of the cabinet. The self-serve account funded with crypto used to be called the "TON cabinet". It is the same account, now paid in Gram — we call it the Gram cabinet. The euro cabinet sold through resellers and the Stars cabinet for promoting your own channel or bot are unaffected. For a full comparison of the three, see our guide Gram vs EUR vs Stars.

The currency you buy. Exchanges and wallets list the coin as GRAM. If you top up the ad account through Fragment, the flow is unchanged: a TON wallet such as Tonkeeper or MyTonWallet, GRAM bought on an exchange, then "Connect TON" and top up on Fragment.

Official pages are renamed unevenly. The getting-started page still says the minimum CPM is "0.1 Toncoin". Read it as 0.1 Gram — the coin is the same.

What did not change:

• the ad policies — they apply to every cabinet regardless of payment (guidelines);
• the minimum CPM of 0.1 in the self-serve cabinet;
• the targeting of the self-serve cabinet — explicit lists of channels, bots and search keywords;
• the rule that search ads bought with TON/Gram are not shown to users in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, while those bought with Stars are shown everywhere (tginfo).

---

What changed for channel owners#

Channels and bots that show Telegram Ads receive 50% of the ad revenue from valid impressions. Rewards now accrue in Gram and in Stars. According to Telegram's terms, a Gram balance can be withdrawn 2 days after it accrues and a Stars balance after 21 days; the payouts are processed by Fragment (ToS). In the app this lives under Channel Settings → Statistics → Monetization (Fragment).

Older guides that promise a "minimum payout of 1 TON" or a fixed Stars-to-TON rate are out of date. Telegram's terms do not name such a minimum, and the Gram price floats; only the Stars withdrawal value is fixed, at $0.013 per Star.

---

Suggested Posts are also paid in Gram#

Since July 2025 anyone can suggest a paid post to a channel through its direct messages, offering Stars or — now — Gram. The channel receives 85% once the post has stayed up for 24 hours; if it is deleted earlier, the money goes back (Telegram blog, API config). Fragment's ads page describes the sponsor side plainly: "Use Grams to sponsor posts on Telegram by making offers to public channel admins" (fragment.com/ads). If you run out of Gram mid-offer, the app sends you to the same Fragment top-up page.

---

What our archive shows#

Our public archive splits every captured sponsored message into two rails using a technical flag Telegram attaches to each ad: the self-serve crypto cabinet (now Gram) and the euro cabinet. As of 23 September 2026 the archive holds 585,770 creatives:

Rail	Creatives	Share
Gram cabinet (formerly TON)	470,871	80.4%
Euro cabinet	114,818	19.6%

Source: tgadsspy.com API, source=ton / source=eur, 23.09.2026.

Two caveats. This is a count of distinct creatives, not money: a euro-cabinet campaign typically runs fewer, larger-budget creatives, so the spend split is certainly less lopsided. And the archive covers the channels we track, not all of Telegram. Still, the picture is clear: most of the variety of Telegram advertising — thousands of small advertisers testing texts — comes through the Gram-paid self-serve cabinet.

The API parameter kept its historical name: source=ton returns Gram-cabinet ads.

---

Common confusions#

"Gram is a new token, I need to swap." No. Same coin, same balances, new name and ticker.

"The TON blockchain was renamed too." No. The network is still TON; only its coin is called Gram.

"Gram and Stars are the same thing now." No. Stars are Telegram's in-app currency; Gram is the coin of the TON network. The Stars cabinet and the Gram cabinet are different cabinets with different rules.

"Paying in Gram lets you run ads the euro cabinet would reject." No. Moderation rules are identical for every cabinet.

---

FAQ#

When did Toncoin become Gram? On 15 June 2026 at 12:00 UTC, after a vote held 1–8 June.

Do I have to do anything with my ad balance? No. Balances were not migrated or swapped; they are simply shown as Gram.

Where do I buy Gram for ads? On a crypto exchange that lists GRAM, then transfer it to a TON wallet and top up through Fragment. Fragment may require identity verification.

Will Gram Wallet replace Fragment for topping up ads? Telegram has not said so. As of September 2026 the official top-up link in the Telegram client still points to fragment.com/ads/topup (config).

Is the minimum CPM still 0.1? Yes, 0.1 in the self-serve cabinet per Telegram's getting-started page, which still calls it "0.1 Toncoin".

---

Sources: @gram, Pavel Durov, ads.telegram.org, getting-started, Fragment, Content Creator Rewards ToS, Telegram blog, Telegram API config. Data: tgadsspy.com · License: CC BY 4.0

Telegram Ads Spy Research (2026). Toncoin Is Now Gram: What Changed for Telegram Ads in 2026. tgadsspy.com. Retrieved from https://tgadsspy.com/blog/toncoin-renamed-gram-telegram-ads-2026