Toncoin

Toncoin (TON, originally Gram, GRM) — is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network blockchain. Developed by Telegram, it is in the top 10 on CoinMarketCap. Toncoin is trading on popular cryptocurrency exchanges. The token has nine decimal places, with the smallest unit called a "nanoton" or simply "nano."

History of Toncoin

January 2018: Applications for ICO participation started to raise $850 million. Telegram made the initial coin offering following U.S. law due to the involvement of U.S. investors. In the first round, the volume of applications exceeded expectations, reaching $3.8 billion. Telegram raised an additional $850 million in the second round.

November 2019: Developers launched testnet2 and issued 5 billion coins — 1.45% of the total volume allocated to developers and testers.

May 2020: Telegram halted work on TON following the SEC decision to ban the issuance of tokens to investors. Developers transferred testnet2 coins to 20 Proof-of-Work (PoW) Giver smart-contracts.

June 2020: Mining began. Telegram developers published instructions for obtaining test tokens.

May 2021: Developers converted Testnet2 into the main network, renamed the Gram token into Toncoin, and distributed coins through PoW Giver contracts.

June 2022: Mining stopped. A complete transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) was made, with an increased number of validators and the volume of coins in pools.

Mining

Mining began after Telegram ceased work on TON. The developers placed the tokens in special PoW Giver smart contracts. Anyone interested could mine under equal conditions. Free mining allowed the distribution of coins among many miners without conducting sales. Mining continued for two years until the tokens in the PoW Giver contracts were exhausted. TON then fully transitioned to Proof-of-Stake.

Tokenomics

The maximum number of coins is around 5.1 billion. Initially, 4% of the tokens (200 million) were for the Telegram team. 52% were set aside to protect against speculation. The remaining 44% were designated for sale through public and private campaigns.

After Telegram exited the project, the tokenomics changed. According to the whitepaper, an annual issuance of about 2% was planned, with a validation yield of 20% per year. It was expected that up to 10% of the total number of coins would be locked in staking. Currently, the inflation rate is 0.5%, and the annual yield for stakeholders is around 4%.

At present, the total circulation of Toncoin is about 3.5 billion. Of these, 1.3 billion are locked in a special smart contract as part of the TON Believers fund initiative. These coins are locked for two years and will be released through vesting over the following three years. Approximately 0.5 billion are locked for validation. Another significant part is locked in DeFi protocols. Additionally, 1.08 billion tokens (20%) were frozen for four years. These are inactive wallets of early miners. The community made this decision through a vote.

Toncoin is issued and burned in small quantities. Issuance is necessary to reward validators. Half the fees collected for transactions and data storage in smart contracts are burned.

A special fund, TON Reserve, was planned to maintain the coin's stability, but developers didn't implement this idea. Currently, the token's price is subject to volatility. The minimum price of $0.3906 was in 2020, and the maximum cost was $7.65 in 2024.

Wrapped Toncoin

Wrapped Toncoin is the wrapped version of the original TON coin. Wrapping occurs by locking the original token and issuing the wrapped token. Users can unlock it by returning the wrapped token, which is then burned.

Wrapped Toncoin exists on TON, Ethereum, and BSC blockchains. It is necessary for use on DEXs, transfers between blockchains, and voting. The value of one wrapped token is always equal to the value of the original.

Toncoin usage

Gas Fees. Gas is needed to execute smart contracts and pay for data storage. This payment is for the validator work.
Trading. Traders can swap tokens on DEX and CEX exchanges.
Staking. You can deposit and hold tokens in pools to validate the network and earn a small percentage reward.
Bridges. Toncoin can be transferred from one blockchain to another where it is wrapped.
Liquidity Pools. Liquidity can be provided for decentralized exchanges, earning from exchange fees.
Farming. You can earn additional rewards in the exchange's native token by providing liquidity to farming pools.
Earning on CEX. Some CEX provides the ability to «deposit and earn»
P2P Exchanges. Users can exchange fiat for Toncoin and earn from the exchange rate differences with P2P.
Payments. Telegram provides a convenient payment service for buying channel subscriptions and Telegram Premium.
NFT Trading. Owners can sell as NFT their digital assets: images, artworks, game vouchers, anonymous numbers, audio, and video.
Telegram Username Auctions: Telegram users can buy and sell usernames on Fragment — the first lot, @auto, sold for 900,000 Toncoin.
Exchange for Jettons: Tokens each have their use cases.
Gambling. Gamblers can play in online casinos, lotteries, and bets on sports events with crypto.
Telegram users can use Donations, Checks, and Giveaways to promote their channels and groups.
Voting. Community members can make valuable decisions on the TON Vote DAO platform.

Storage

It's better to store Toncoins in non-custodial wallets, with Tonkeeper being the most popular. Among custodial wallets, the most popular is @wallet on Telegram.

Explorers

Various explorers can track Toncoin's movements. The Ton Whales website provides information on the largest coin holders, early miners, and the TON Foundation wallet movements. Explorers of the respective blockchains can also track the distribution of wrapped TON coins.

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