How did the GRAM cryptocurrency come into existence?
Pavel Durov first revealed his plan to launch a cryptocurrency project in a 2017 interview with Bloomberg - this was also at a time when crypto and NFTs were gaining a lot of attention.
He worked hard on the project and shared many important details throughout its development. His team focused on building a payment system and creating a new cryptocurrency, which they later named Gram. Because of this, Gram became one of the hottest topics between 2018 and 2019 in crypto communities.
At first, Gram was introduced as an internal token of the platform rather than an independent cryptocurrency, which also explains the absence of a distinct creation story. However, Gram gained importance when Pavel Durov announced its launch, along with the TON Telegram blockchain, which was meant to serve as its foundation.
The main concept behind Gram was to establish a currency that would be easily accessible to a broad audience due to its integration with the messenger platform.
Some people suggested that Gram was created to help Telegram make money and become less dependent on big investors, advertisers, and governments for more privacy. Having its own crypto was seen as a way to add new features to the platform and make it safer for users.
Even before Gram was officially released, Russian designers showed their support by making a special physical coin. This coin was unique because it was made entirely of gold and was quite large. It had the Gram logo and name on it, with a stylish binary code in the background. Around the edge, it said "Telegram token" and "5,000,000,000," which represented how many coins the creators planned to issue.
The company's release stated that the coin, designated as "001," had a palm-sized diameter of 10 centimeters and was made with a 999° gold plating.
What Went Wrong?
In 2018, the company actively pursued its new cryptocurrency project, which was planned to be called Gram. Pavel Durov even managed to raise $1.7 billion in two rounds of investment by selling nearly 3 billion tokens. The company received funding from 171 investors worldwide, including venture capital funds Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as billionaires Yuri Milner and Roman Abramovich, Qiwi founder Sergey Solonin, and other prominent entrepreneurs.
However, due to the widespread hype surrounding the fundraising through the issuance of a new cryptocurrency (ICO), Pavel Durov decided to abandon the public sale of tokens. Regular users could no longer become token holders.
According to preliminary estimates, the project's valuation at that time was over $5 billion. Everything was moving towards the official launch of Gram in November 2019, but it was hindered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Initially, the SEC sought a court injunction to prevent the issuance of the cryptocurrency, and later influenced the final ban on transferring Gram to the hands of investors. The SEC argued that Telegram's coins essentially constituted securities, and therefore, Pavel Durov's company was obligated to comply with all listing rules, including providing information about the company's business, financial position, and risks.
Pavel Durov's company insisted on recognizing Gram as a commodity rather than a security. However, the court was convinced otherwise: according to the lawsuit, Gram is neither a commodity nor a currency, and therefore cannot be sold to a large number of investors.
"The court thus supported the position of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It argued that the Telegram cryptocurrency essentially constituted securities, but Telegram did not disclose information about the company's financial condition, its business, management, and risks, as required by the US Securities Act of 1933. In October, the SEC obtained a temporary restraining order on the issuance of the Gram cryptocurrency," Forbes reported.
At the same time, legal proceedings began for Telegram Messenger Inc. The company filed a lawsuit against the American startup Lantah LLC, which planned to release its own cryptocurrency called Gram and had already registered the trademark rights. However, Pavel Durov's cryptocurrency project was shut down, and the legal proceedings with the American startup over the trademark lost their purpose. In the summer of 2020, it became known that Telegram Messenger Inc. would have to cover the legal costs.
Pavel Durov Abandoned the Idea and Left the Cryptocurrency Project
The TON blockchain project ran into trouble because of legal battles with U.S. regulators. The court blocked the launch of the Gram cryptocurrency, and as a result, Pavel Durov’s company had to return over $1 billion in investments to backers.
"Unfortunately, the US court suspended the launch of TON. How? Imagine that a few people pooled their money to build a gold mine, and then divided the gold that... comes out of it. Then a judge comes and says, 'These people invested money in a gold mine because they were seeking profit. And they didn't want this gold for themselves; they wanted to sell it to other people. Because of this, they can't get the gold.'"
If this seems senseless to you, you're not alone — but that's exactly what happened with TON (the mine) and Gram (the gold). The judge used this argument to decide that people should not be allowed to acquire or sell Gram in the same way they can buy or sell Bitcoins," Pavel Durov commented in the publication "Code Durov."
The entrepreneur also noted that the court prohibited the new cryptocurrency from being distributed not only within the United States but worldwide. Moreover, he announced "the end of Telegram's active participation in TON."
Furthermore, not all investors withdrew their investments; some of them left their funds as loans. For example, Qiwi founder Sergey Solonin said, "If Telegram doesn't make any profit, it doesn't mean it's worthless. Durov has the opportunity to build a global ecosystem around Telegram — this project is not even halfway through," shared one of the investors.
What Is Currently Known About Gram?
After the founder left the project, the group of developers did not abandon it and continued to work on it. In 2024, the coin once again made headlines and caught the attention of investors.
However, there are currently several coins from different representatives trading under the ticker symbol Gram. In February, BeinCrypto published its research on the connection between Gram and the TON blockchain, and therefore Telegram.
For instance, the publication was able to establish that a cryptocurrency called Gramm exists in several projects, such as the game Norma in Metaland, and information about the coin is periodically published on the social network The Daily TON.
As for the latter, the official TON blog often mentions news from the publication in its posts. Despite this, there is still no reliable information about the involvement of the cryptocurrency created by Pavel Durov in any of the mentioned projects.
