Pavel Durov’s seven-step plan to rebuild Gram round Telegram is 4 steps in. The velocity improve, the charge minimize, the validator takeover, and the rename have all shipped. Here’s what every one did, and what the three undisclosed steps is perhaps.
Abstract
- Pavel Durov’s seven step MTONGA roadmap has accomplished 4 milestones, together with a velocity improve, decrease charges, Telegram’s validator takeover, and the Gram rebrand.
- Telegram has reclaimed direct affect over The Open Community, marking a serious departure from the separation established after the 2020 SEC settlement.
- Three undisclosed roadmap steps stay, with merchants intently waiting for developments that would drive consumer adoption and on chain exercise.
In April 2026, Pavel Durov started publishing a roadmap on his Telegram channel underneath a intentionally provocative title: Make TON Nice Once more, or MTONGA. It’s a seven-step plan to rework The Open Community, the blockchain behind the token now known as Gram, into the first cost and software layer for Telegram’s roughly one billion customers. 4 of the seven steps have shipped. Three stay undisclosed. And every revealed step has moved the value, which is why merchants deal with the unannounced ones as scheduled catalysts ready to fireside.
This information walks by means of what MTONGA truly is, what every of the 4 accomplished steps did, why the market has reacted the way in which it has, and what the three remaining steps would possibly turn into. If you happen to maintain Gram, commerce it, or try to grasp why the token retains spiking and fading, the roadmap is the framework that explains the sample.
What MTONGA is, in a single paragraph
Make TON Nice Once more is Durov’s title for the coordinated push, launched in April 2026, to improve The Open Community and bind it tightly to Telegram. The roadmap issues as a result of it marks a reversal: Telegram constructed the community in 2018, deserted it in 2020 after an SEC enforcement motion, and left the unbiased TON Basis to run it for years. MTONGA is Durov personally retaking the wheel, turning into the community’s largest validator, reclaiming the unique Gram title, and asserting a sequence of technical and branding strikes designed to make the chain quick sufficient and low cost sufficient to serve Telegram’s billion-user base. The title echoes a political slogan, however the targets are technical and strategic: velocity, low charges, direct Telegram management, and a model that Telegram’s customers already acknowledge.
The 1st step: Catchain 2.0 and sub-second velocity
MTONGA opened on April 9, 2026, with the improve that made the remainder potential.
Durov introduced that the community had turn out to be roughly ten occasions sooner, with transactions confirming in underneath a second the place they beforehand took round 5 seconds or extra. The engine behind the change was Catchain 2.0, a brand new consensus mechanism that minimize block manufacturing time from about 2.5 seconds to roughly 400 milliseconds and launched a streaming layer that pushes updates to functions nearly immediately as a substitute of constructing them look forward to the following block.
For customers, the sensible impact is that funds clear in a few second, trades execute in actual time, and apps reply instantly, the responsiveness a shopper cost community wants if it will really feel like sending a message moderately than ready on a blockchain.
There was a tradeoff price understanding, as a result of it touches the token’s economics.
Extra frequent blocks imply extra validator rewards, which strengthens the motivation to stake but in addition raises issuance: the community’s annual inflation is anticipated to rise from roughly 0.6% towards 3.6% as a consequence of the sooner block manufacturing. That may be a significant enhance, and it sits beneath the bull case as a quiet headwind, extra tokens are created to reward the validators securing the sooner chain. The velocity is a real improve; the inflation bump is its value.
Step two: the sixfold charge minimize
With velocity in place, the following transfer lowered the price of utilizing the community.
Base transaction charges have been minimize roughly sixfold, standardizing the price at round $0.0005 per switch no matter community congestion. TON charges have been already low in contrast with Ethereum or Solana, so the importance is much less in regards to the absolute saving and extra about what low cost, predictable charges allow: micropayments and high-frequency functions that solely make sense when every transaction prices a fraction of a cent.
A community aiming to host in-app funds, tipping, and shopper commerce for a billion individuals wants charges low sufficient that customers by no means take into consideration them, and the sixfold minimize strikes towards that, with Durov having referenced feeless transactions as a longer-term aim. The charge discount is the financial complement to the velocity improve: quick and almost free is the mix a shopper cost layer requires.
Step three: Telegram turns into the most important validator
Step three was essentially the most strategically consequential, as a result of it modified who controls the community.
On Could 4, 2026, Durov introduced that Telegram would change the Switzerland-based TON Basis as the first steward of The Open Community and function because the chain’s largest validator, staking hundreds of thousands of tokens by means of the messenger’s personal infrastructure.
This reversed years of deliberate separation between Telegram and the community, the separation that was constructed after the 2020 SEC settlement particularly to distance the corporate from the challenge. Telegram binding its company infrastructure and stake to the chain is the clearest sign but that the corporate is committing its destiny to the community, the factor the market had most wished and most doubted because the unbiased basis took over.
This transfer drew predictable centralization issues, since a single dominant validator is a focus of energy, and Durov pushed again by arguing that Telegram serving as a big validator truly encourages different main gamers to hitch the validator pool as a counterbalance.
Whether or not that holds in observe is an open query, however the strategic level is unambiguous: after years at arm’s size, Telegram is now formally in command of the community’s route, which is the muse the remainder of the roadmap and the complete Gram funding thesis relaxation on.
Step 4: the Gram rename
Step 4 is the one most individuals heard about, and the one which modified the least, mechanically.
In early June, Durov introduced that the native token would reclaim its authentic title, Gram, the title from Telegram’s 2018 whitepaper that was deserted after the SEC compelled the challenge to close down in 2020.
A group vote on the TON Vote platform handed with 81.22% assist, and the rename took impact on June 15, 2026, altering the token’s title and ticker from TON to GRAM whereas leaving the blockchain itself known as The Open Community.
No token swap, migration, or declare was required: balances, addresses, staking, and contracts all carried over, and a holder of 10 Toncoin merely held 10 Gram. For many holders, the rename was a show and ticker change, not a technical occasion.
What made the rename matter was symbolic and strategic, not mechanical.
Reclaiming Gram reconnects the token to its origins and to the Telegram model its customers already acknowledge, closing a niche that at all times made “Toncoin” complicated to the messenger’s personal viewers. It additionally alerts regulatory confidence, since reviving the title the SEC as soon as litigated towards is a press release that Telegram believes the local weather has modified.
A pure rename adjustments no provide, no charges, and no on-chain mechanics, which is why the correct strategy to learn step 4 is because the branding capstone on the three technical and strategic strikes that preceded it.
Why the market reacts the way in which it does
A transparent sample runs by means of all 4 steps, and understanding it explains why Gram retains spiking and fading.
Markets have front-loaded the response into every step. The token roughly doubled from about $1.30 to a peak close to $2.80 to $2.89 by means of the April and Could bulletins of the velocity improve, charge minimize, and validator takeover, pushing the market cap towards $7.6 billion and into the highest 20.
Then it retraced.
The Gram rename added one other double-digit candle, a roughly 19% bounce towards $2.21, after which that light too, with the token sitting close to $1.67 across the time the rename truly took impact.
Every announcement produces a pointy rally that the market subsequently surrenders, which is the traditional buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news rhythm utilized to a roadmap with discrete, pre-signaled occasions.
Rallies fade as a result of the roadmap steps, actual as they’re, haven’t but produced the factor that might maintain a re-rating: sturdy consumer and income development.
Quicker blocks, cheaper charges, Telegram management, and a well-known title are all enablers; they make the community extra able to changing Telegram’s billion customers into lively Gram customers, however they aren’t the conversion itself.
Till the pockets exercise and cost quantity present that conversion taking place, every step is a promise the market rewards briefly after which reductions, which is precisely the sample the value has traced. The steps construct the runway; the takeoff is the half nonetheless unproven, and the value retains reflecting that hole.
The three remaining steps: what they is perhaps
Merchants care most about this query, as a result of the unannounced steps are the following catalysts.
Durov has not detailed steps 5, six, and 7, however his public feedback and the community’s route level to a set of possible candidates.
Durov’s posts have referenced “efficiency upgrades” and “tech superiority” with out specifying deliverables, which suggests at the least one remaining step is additional technical enchancment: extra consensus refinements, extra velocity, or the feeless transactions he has hinted at as a longer-term aim.
A second possible theme is deeper Telegram integration, the wiring of Gram instantly into the messenger’s product suite for in-app funds, tipping, and commerce, constructing on the USDT funds integration Telegram has already pursued as its consumer base nears a billion.
Reported groundwork, together with a brand new ton.org website and improved developer tooling, factors towards a developer-experience and ecosystem step designed to make constructing on the community sooner and extra engaging.
And given the rename’s regulatory symbolism and Telegram’s U.S. ambitions, a step involving expanded entry, a U.S. pockets rollout, or cost partnerships is believable, turning the community’s attain into concrete shopper use instances.
The caveat price stating: these are educated inferences, not bulletins.
Durov has revealed every step on his personal timeline, often shortly earlier than or because it shipped, so the content material and order of the ultimate three are unknown outdoors Telegram.
What is understood is the form: the 4 accomplished steps moved from technical basis (velocity, charges) to strategic management (validator) to model (rename), which suggests the remaining steps could transfer towards activation, turning the upgraded, Telegram-controlled, freshly branded community into one that really converts customers into financial exercise.
That development is the logic to observe as every step is revealed.
What it means for holders and merchants
For holders, the roadmap is the clearest map of what to observe.
Every remaining step is a possible catalyst, and the sample to date says the bulletins produce sharp rallies that fade except they’re backed by proof of actual consumer and income development.
The sign that issues will not be the following announcement itself however whether or not the cumulative roadmap lastly exhibits up in pockets exercise and cost quantity, the conversion that might flip the spikes right into a sustained pattern.
Watching the steps with out watching the conversion is watching the improper half of the story.
For merchants, MTONGA is a calendar of pre-signaled occasions with a constant behavioral sample.
The front-loaded rally and subsequent fade has repeated by means of all 4 revealed steps, which makes the roadmap a tradable rhythm: the rallies have come on announcement and surrendered into the provision and the broad market between occasions.
The three undisclosed steps are scheduled volatility with unknown timing, and Durov’s behavior of showing every step near supply means the lead time is brief.
The token has revered technical ranges within the low $1.80s on assist and stalled within the $2.80 to $2.89 zone on the roadmap-driven highs, which frames the vary the steps have moved it inside.
For anybody weighing the larger image, MTONGA is a substantive roadmap, extra so than the political-slogan title suggests, and the 4 accomplished steps symbolize actual upgrades and an actual strategic reversal.
However the roadmap is the setup, not the payoff.
It makes the community able to mass adoption with out proving the adoption will come, and the three remaining steps, no matter they’re, might be judged by the identical normal the primary 4 at the moment are being judged by: not whether or not they ship, however whether or not they lastly convert Telegram’s billion customers into Gram’s financial system.
Steadily Requested Questions
What’s the Make TON Nice Once more roadmap?
Make TON Nice Once more (MTONGA) is a seven-step plan that Pavel Durov started publishing in April 2026 to improve The Open Community and tie it intently to Telegram.
The aim is to make the blockchain quick and low cost sufficient to function the cost and software layer for Telegram’s roughly one billion customers.
4 steps have shipped: a velocity improve, a charge minimize, Telegram turning into the most important validator, and the rename of the token to Gram.
Three steps stay undisclosed.
What are the 4 accomplished MTONGA steps?
The Catchain 2.0 improve made the community roughly ten occasions sooner with sub-second transaction finality.
A sixfold charge minimize lowered base transaction prices to round $0.0005.
Telegram changed the TON Basis because the community’s major steward and have become its largest validator.
And the native token was renamed from Toncoin to Gram, reclaiming its authentic 2018 title.
Sources quantity the steps barely otherwise, however these are the 4 revealed milestones.
What are the three remaining MTONGA steps?
Durov has not introduced steps 5, six, and 7.
Based mostly on his references to “efficiency upgrades” and “tech superiority,” and on the community’s route, possible candidates embody additional technical enhancements resembling feeless transactions, deeper Telegram integration for in-app funds and commerce, improved developer tooling and a brand new ton.org website, and presumably expanded entry or cost partnerships.
These are educated inferences, not confirmed bulletins.
Why does the Gram value spike after which fall after every step?
The market front-loads its response into every introduced step, producing a pointy rally that then fades.
The token doubled from about $1.30 to just about $2.80 by means of the spring bulletins earlier than retracing, and the Gram rename added a roughly 19% bounce that additionally light.
The rallies fade as a result of the roadmap steps are enablers, sooner, cheaper, Telegram-controlled, freshly branded, however haven’t but produced the sturdy consumer and income development that might maintain a re-rating.
It’s a buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news sample utilized to a roadmap.
Did the Gram rename change the token’s value or provide?
No.
The rename was a reputation and ticker change with no impact on provide, charges, or on-chain mechanics.
A separate a part of the roadmap, the Catchain 2.0 velocity improve, does have an effect on economics, elevating anticipated annual inflation from roughly 0.6% towards 3.6% as a result of extra frequent blocks generate extra validator rewards.
The rename itself modified nothing mechanical; value strikes round it mirrored market sentiment, not the title change.
Is Telegram now in command of The Open Community?
Sure, in sensible phrases.
In Could 2026, Telegram changed the Switzerland-based TON Basis because the community’s major steward and have become its largest validator, staking hundreds of thousands of tokens by means of its personal infrastructure.
This reversed years of deliberate separation arrange after the 2020 SEC settlement.
Durov has argued that Telegram serving as a big validator strengthens moderately than weakens decentralization by encouraging different validators to hitch as a counterbalance, although that is still an open query.
As of June 16, 2026. Cryptocurrency markets are risky, and particulars can change; confirm present info with official sources earlier than performing. This text is info, not funding recommendation.
