Toncoin / Gram (TON → GRAM) Taxes 2026: Staking, Telegram Airdrops, and the Rebrand

TON/Gram is property for U.S. tax purposes

Under IRS Notice 2014-21, Toncoin — and its successor token Gram — is treated as property for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the same as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all other cryptocurrencies.¹ The June 2026 name and ticker change from TON to GRAM did not alter this treatment. General tax principles for property transactions apply: every disposal generates a capital gain or loss, and the character (short-term vs. long-term) depends on how long the specific units disposed of were held.

Taxable disposal events for TON/GRAM include:

• Selling GRAM for U.S. dollars or stablecoins on a centralized exchange (Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit)
• Trading GRAM for any other token on STON.fi, DeDust, or any other DEX on the TON blockchain
• Spending GRAM to purchase NFTs on Getgems or any other TON marketplace
• Paying GRAM as transaction fees on the TON blockchain — each fee is a micro-disposal at the fee's FMV minus your GRAM cost basis for those lots
• Providing GRAM as liquidity to a STON.fi or DeDust pool and later withdrawing at a different token ratio
• Collateral GRAM liquidated by a lending protocol on the TON chain
• Depositing GRAM into a liquid staking protocol (Bemo, TonStakers, Hipo) in exchange for a receipt token — under the conservative tax position described below

Not taxable events: Transferring GRAM between wallets you control, delegating to a nominator pool, the June 2026 TON → GRAM rebrand (name/ticker change only, nothing migrated), and receiving GRAM as a gift.

2026 federal capital gains rates on GRAM

GRAM gains follow the same federal rate schedule as all crypto property. For 2026, after subtracting the standard deduction ($16,100 single / $32,200 married filing jointly):²

Short-term GRAM gains (held 12 months or less) are taxed as ordinary income at rates up to 37% federal plus 3.8% NIIT. Buyers who acquired GRAM (then TON) during the June 2024 peak at prices above $7.00–$8.29 and still hold those positions have now held them over 24 months — well past the 12-month long-term threshold — making their current unrealized losses eligible for long-term capital loss treatment on disposal.

Nominator pool staking: the manual-claim timing question

TON's proof-of-stake consensus uses validators and nominators. Validators run network nodes and must stake a large amount of GRAM to participate in consensus rounds. Nominators — regular holders — can participate by depositing GRAM into nominator pool smart contracts managed by validators. Staking rewards accumulate as each validation cycle completes.

Critically: nominator pool rewards do not automatically arrive in your wallet. To access staking rewards, a nominator must send an on-chain transaction to the pool contract requesting a withdrawal. Until that transaction is submitted, the rewards remain locked in the pool contract and are not directly spendable.

Under Rev. Rul. 2023-14, staking rewards are includible as ordinary income at the fair market value on the date the taxpayer gains dominion and control over the tokens.³ For TON nominator pools, that timing question — does income occur when rewards accrue in the pool, or when you actively withdraw them? — is directly analogous to the Cosmos Hub manual-claim question, and the IRS has not issued TON-specific guidance. Two positions apply:

Planning implication: Because GRAM staking rewards require an active on-chain withdrawal, holders can choose the tax year in which that income is recognized. In a year where you plan to realize a large GRAM capital gain — or where your ordinary income is elevated from other sources — deferring the withdrawal into January of the following year can shift staking income to a lower-rate year. Choose a consistent tax position, document it, and apply it across all years.

• Cost basis = FMV at withdrawal date (actual-claim position). Each GRAM batch withdrawn from the nominator pool has a cost basis equal to the GRAM/USD price on the withdrawal date. Subsequent price appreciation above that basis is capital gain; a decline is capital loss.
• SE tax does not apply to passive nominators. Depositing GRAM in a nominator pool does not constitute running a business. Validator operators running consensus infrastructure owe self-employment tax; passive nominators do not. GRAM staking income for nominator pool participants is ordinary income subject to regular income tax only — not subject to the 15.3%/2.9% SE tax that applies to earned income.
• Validation cycle timing. TON's validation cycles run approximately every 18 hours. After each cycle, the validator distributes rewards proportionally to nominator pool participants. An active nominator holding through a full month will see approximately 40 completed cycles before a single withdrawal, generating a single income event (on the withdrawal date under the actual-claim position) representing accumulated rewards from all 40 cycles.

The June 2026 TON → GRAM rebrand: not a taxable event

On June 1, 2026, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced a rebranding initiative to restore the token's original planned name. Following a community governance vote (approved June 15, 2026 with 81.22% support), Toncoin was officially renamed Gram, with the ticker symbol changing from TON to GRAM and a new logo adopted. The transition was expected to take approximately three weeks for exchange and wallet interface updates.⁴

For U.S. tax purposes, this rebrand is not a taxable event. The token name, ticker, and logo changed. The underlying smart contract and blockchain state did not change. No holder performed a swap, migration, or disposal. No new token was issued in exchange for old tokens. Balances, staking positions, pending pool rewards, and cost basis history are all unchanged. The situation is analogous to a publicly traded company changing its name or ticker symbol — you hold the same economic interest, just under a new label.

Practical note: exchange account statements and Form 1099-DA reports for 2026 may reference TON for the period January 1 – June 15 and GRAM for the period after June 15, or may transition fully to GRAM for the whole year depending on exchange implementation. Both labels refer to the same cost basis history. Ensure your crypto tax software treats TON and GRAM as the same asset when importing 2026 transaction history — do not treat the ticker change as a sale of TON and purchase of GRAM.

Telegram game airdrops: NOT, DOGS, HMSTR, and others

In 2024, a wave of Telegram-native tap-to-earn games distributed tokens to their user bases via airdrops, all settled on the TON blockchain. The three largest were:

Under Rev. Rul. 2019-24 and the principles of Notice 2014-21, airdropped tokens are ordinary income at their fair market value on the date the taxpayer gains dominion and control over them.⁵ For exchange-listed tokens, this is generally the listing date — the first moment the tokens have a determinable FMV and can be sold or transferred freely.

Key tax consequences:

• The FMV of NOT, DOGS, and HMSTR on their respective listing dates was ordinary income for recipients in the tax year received (all three were 2024 income events).
• The cost basis in the airdropped tokens equals their FMV at the time of the income recognition event (the listing/claim date). It is not zero.
• Subsequent sales of these tokens generate capital gain or loss measured from that income-recognition basis, with the character (short-term or long-term) determined by the holding period from the income-recognition date.
• If you received these airdrops in 2024 and did not report them as ordinary income on your 2024 return, you have an underreported income issue. All three tokens were distributed via exchange accounts where 1099-DA reporting now applies — there is a paper trail.

Additional Telegram ecosystem tokens distributed as airdrops — STON (the STON.fi governance token), various meme coins, and future TON-ecosystem protocol tokens — follow the same ordinary income treatment on receipt. The TON/GRAM blockchain's integration with Telegram's 900 million+ user base means many holders received airdrop income they were unaware constituted a taxable event at the time.

STON.fi, DeDust, and TON blockchain DeFi

STON.fi and DeDust are the two primary decentralized exchanges on the TON blockchain, collectively handling most of the on-chain swap volume for GRAM, Jetton tokens, stablecoins, and liquid staking receipt tokens.

Token swaps

Every swap on STON.fi or DeDust is a taxable disposal of the asset being sold. If you swap GRAM for USDT, NOT, DOGS, stTON, or any other token, you recognize capital gain or loss on the GRAM (or asset sold) at its FMV on the transaction date minus your cost basis in the specific lots used. The acquired token has a new cost basis equal to its FMV at the time of receipt. STON.fi charges a swap fee (typically 0.1%–0.3%) that reduces the proceeds of the sold asset for tax purposes.

Liquidity provision

The tax treatment of depositing tokens into a STON.fi or DeDust liquidity pool is unsettled. Two positions apply:

• Conservative: Depositing two tokens (e.g., GRAM and USDT) for LP shares is a taxable exchange — you dispose of each token at FMV on deposit and acquire LP shares at combined FMV as cost basis. On withdrawal, you dispose of LP shares at FMV and acquire the underlying tokens. LP rewards (STON governance token or protocol incentives) earned by the position are ordinary income at FMV when received or claimable.
• Aggressive: LP deposit is a contribution to a pool rather than a taxable sale. The IRS has not adopted this position for DeFi AMM deposits. Conservative treatment is lower-risk absent guidance.

TON Space (Telegram Wallet) activity

TON Space is a self-custody wallet built directly into the Telegram app. Swaps, token purchases, and NFT transactions executed through TON Space carry the same tax treatment as any other on-chain TON blockchain activity — the fact that the interface lives inside Telegram does not create a special tax category. Every disposal event within TON Space is reportable. The informal, app-embedded feel of TON Space is one reason many GRAM holders have incomplete tax records for 2024 and 2025 on-chain activity.

Liquid staking: stTON, tsTON, and hTON

Three liquid staking protocols on the TON blockchain allow holders to stake GRAM while retaining a tradeable receipt token:

• stTON (Bemo) — a value-accruing receipt token: the stTON/GRAM exchange rate appreciates over time as staking rewards accumulate inside the protocol. The holder's stTON balance does not change; each stTON becomes redeemable for progressively more GRAM.
• tsTON (TonStakers) — similar ratio-appreciation model.
• hTON (Hipo) — pools GRAM for validator delegation and issues hTON as a receipt.

Two tax positions apply to depositing GRAM into these protocols:

• Conservative: Depositing GRAM for a receipt token (stTON, tsTON, hTON) is a taxable exchange — you dispose of GRAM at FMV and acquire the receipt token at the same FMV as cost basis. On redemption, you dispose of the receipt token at FMV and acquire GRAM, recognizing capital gain or loss relative to the receipt token's cost basis. The appreciation in the stTON/GRAM ratio represents staking income that accrued inside the protocol; under the ratio-appreciation model, some practitioners recognize ordinary income each period as the ratio increases while others recognize it entirely upon redemption.
• Aggressive: The deposit is not a taxable exchange — it is a receipt for the same GRAM, merely staked through a pooling contract. The IRS has not adopted this position. Conservative treatment is lower-risk.

Apply consistent treatment across all liquid staking positions and document your approach. The total economic result — staking income plus or minus any gain or loss on the receipt token — is the same under most interpretations; the question is timing and character.

Harvesting GRAM losses — no wash-sale restriction

Toncoin reached its all-time high of approximately $8.29 on June 15, 2024. Buyers who accumulated near the peak — in the $6.00–$8.29 range between April and August 2024 — and still hold those lots are sitting on significant unrealized losses. Those lots have now been held more than 24 months, qualifying for long-term capital loss treatment.

Under current law, cryptocurrency is not a "security" under IRC §1091 — the wash-sale rule does not apply to GRAM or any other digital asset.⁶ You can sell underwater GRAM lots at a loss and immediately repurchase the same amount of GRAM without triggering wash-sale disallowance. The loss is fully deductible; your repurchased position resets to current market cost basis.

The rebrand from TON to GRAM does not affect loss harvesting mechanics. Whether your exchange shows your acquisition as "TON" or "GRAM" in the transaction history, the cost basis is the USD price paid at the acquisition date and the holding period runs from that date. For 2024 peak buyers, the June 2026 rebrand represents no change to the tax math on their position.

See the crypto tax loss harvesting guide for the full capital loss netting hierarchy, lot prioritization strategy (short-term losses vs. long-term losses), and estimated payment timing considerations.

Planning strategies for large GRAM positions

Early TON/GRAM holders — buyers from the 2021 wave below $4, or 2022 buyers who accumulated below $2 — hold positions with significant embedded gains. The same concentrated-position planning toolkit that applies across crypto applies here:

1. Multi-year tranche selling to manage bracket exposure. A married couple with $200,000 in ordinary income can realize up to approximately $414,000 of long-term GRAM gains at the 15% LTCG rate before crossing into the 20%+NIIT zone in 2026. Spreading sales across two or three tax years can reduce the average federal rate on a seven-figure position well below 20%. Use the crypto bracket calculator to model how much additional long-term gain fits in your current-year bracket before each year-end.
2. Specific lot identification before every sale. If you purchased GRAM across multiple tranches — early 2021 below $2, mid-2021 around $3–$4, and again in 2024 above $5 — designating high-basis lots for sale first reduces gain recognized per transaction. This election must be made before the trade executes. Document the specific lots selected; most major exchanges supporting GRAM allow specific ID election. FIFO is the default if you do not elect otherwise, which may not minimize your tax cost.
3. Time nominator pool withdrawals around income events. Because GRAM staking rewards require a manual on-chain withdrawal to be recognized as income, you control when that income materializes. If you plan to realize a large GRAM capital gain in 2026 — pushing your ordinary income into a higher bracket — consider deferring your staking reward withdrawal into January 2027 to separate the two income events across tax years. In a low-income year, accelerating the claim may be efficient.
4. Donate appreciated GRAM directly to a donor-advised fund. Contributing long-term appreciated GRAM to a DAF eliminates the embedded capital gain entirely — the donor receives a fair-market-value charitable deduction and the DAF sells the GRAM without recognizing gain. On a $200,000 GRAM position with $5,000 of basis, direct DAF contribution saves approximately $46,500 in combined federal capital gains tax (at the 20%+NIIT rate) versus selling first and donating cash. See the crypto charitable giving guide for the 2026 OBBBA deduction mechanics.
5. Step-up in basis at death for very large, low-basis positions. GRAM held until death receives a full basis step-up to fair market value under IRC §1014, eliminating the embedded gain entirely for heirs. For early TON holders with millions in unrealized gain and limited current liquidity needs, modeling the hold-to-death path against a multi-year diversification plan may reveal significantly more total family wealth preserved through the estate route. The $15 million federal estate exemption (made permanent by OBBBA 2025) means most GRAM holders face no estate tax concern. See the crypto estate planning guide for self-custody wallet inheritance mechanics and seed phrase transfer.

Airdrop income reconstruction: a common gap

The Telegram-based airdrop wave of 2024 distributed tokens to tens of millions of users, many of whom had never filed a crypto-related tax return. NOT, DOGS, HMSTR, and similar tokens were accessible via the Telegram app in a consumer interface that did not display tax disclosures or basis information. The result: a large population of holders who received ordinary income in 2024 that was never included on a tax return.

If you received Telegram game airdrops in 2024 and they were not reported on your 2024 return:

• Determine the FMV of each token on its listing date (the date you first had tradeable access — NOT May 16, DOGS August 20, HMSTR September 26).
• Multiply by the number of tokens received to calculate the ordinary income amount for each airdrop.
• Assess whether the underreported income exceeds a threshold that warrants an amended return or voluntary correction under the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program.
• Check whether you sold any of these tokens on Coinbase, Kraken, or another covered exchange in 2024 or 2025. A 1099-DA showing a sale of NOT, DOGS, or HMSTR without a corresponding income entry on your return creates a specific IRS matching risk.

A crypto-aware CPA can reconstruct the income amounts, assess the penalty exposure on the original returns, and advise on whether an amended return or a voluntary disclosure is the appropriate correction path given your specific circumstances.

When to bring in a crypto-aware financial advisor

A fee-only advisor who works with TON/GRAM positions coordinates the decisions that interact across tax, staking, DeFi, and estate dimensions: multi-year sale sequencing, lot selection across on-chain history and exchange records, nominator pool reward claim timing, Telegram airdrop income reconstruction, and charitable giving analysis.

The conversation typically makes sense when:

• GRAM holdings exceed $250,000 and a diversification plan is under consideration in the next 12–24 months
• Unreported 2024 Telegram game airdrop income (NOT, DOGS, HMSTR) needs to be assessed and corrected before a large GRAM sale triggers IRS matching scrutiny
• Nominator pool staking rewards have accumulated over multiple years without consistent tax reporting, creating a potential constructive receipt issue to resolve
• DeFi activity on STON.fi, DeDust, or TON Space has generated a significant transaction volume without systematic cost-basis tracking
• An early TON position — acquired below $2.00 in 2021 — represents a meaningful share of household net worth and the hold-versus-sell-versus-donate decision needs a written financial plan incorporating tax, estate, and liquidity objectives
• June 2024 peak positions carry large unrealized losses and you want to model the optimal harvesting sequence relative to other capital gains and income events

Tax savings from optimal lot selection, tranche selling, and Telegram airdrop basis correction on a six- or seven-figure GRAM position routinely exceed an advisor's annual fee many times over. A fee-only advisor earns no product commissions; the engagement focuses entirely on reducing your tax cost.

Get matched with a crypto-aware financial advisor

Tell us about your GRAM position — size, approximate cost basis, whether you have unreported Telegram airdrop income to sort out, nominator pool staking history that needs reconstruction, and what decision is in front of you. We will match you with a fee-only advisor who has worked with concentrated TON/GRAM positions: airdrop income planning, multi-year sale sequencing, charitable giving of appreciated digital assets, and estate planning for self-custody wallets.

Fee-only focus - No obligation - Privacy-minded matching - Built for concentrated-position planning

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1. IRS, Notice 2014-21 — virtual currency is property for U.S. federal income tax purposes; general tax principles for property transactions apply to Toncoin/Gram and all Jetton tokens on the TON blockchain; every disposal (sale, trade, spend, DEX swap, NFT purchase) triggers gain or loss recognition at fair market value. The June 2026 name and ticker change from TON to GRAM did not change this treatment: no migration, swap, or disposal occurred.
2. IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32; Tax Foundation, 2026 Federal Tax Brackets and Rates — 2026 LTCG rates: 0% to $49,450 single / $98,900 MFJ; 15% to $545,500 / $613,700; 20% above; standard deduction $16,100 single / $32,200 MFJ; NIIT 3.8% at MAGI above $200,000 / $250,000 (IRC §1411, non-indexed).
3. IRS, Revenue Ruling 2023-14 — staking rewards from proof-of-stake networks are includible in gross income as ordinary income at fair market value on the date the taxpayer gains dominion and control over the reward tokens; TON nominator pool rewards that require an active on-chain withdrawal transaction before the nominator can access them raise the same manual-claim timing question as Cosmos Hub; the constructive receipt vs. actual-claim positions described in this guide are both in use by tax practitioners; the IRS has not issued TON-specific guidance.
4. TON Blockchain, Native Token Rename: Toncoin (TON) to Gram (GRAM) — official announcement of the June 2026 rebrand; the rename changed only the token's name, ticker, and logo; no swap, migration, or holder action was required; balances, staking positions, and pending pool rewards were unaffected; the rebrand is not a taxable event under U.S. tax law because no disposal of property occurred.
5. IRS, Revenue Ruling 2019-24 — cryptocurrency received through a hard fork or airdrop when a taxpayer has dominion and control over the tokens is includible in gross income as ordinary income at FMV; applies to all TON ecosystem Jetton airdrops including NOT (Notcoin, launched May 16, 2024), DOGS (listed August 20, 2024), and HMSTR (Hamster Kombat, listed September 26, 2024); FMV on listing date is ordinary income for the recipient; cost basis in the airdropped tokens equals that FMV, not zero.
6. IRC §1091; IRS, Topic No. 409 Capital Gains and Losses — wash-sale disallowance under §1091 applies to securities (stocks, bonds); cryptocurrency is treated as property under U.S. tax law and is not a security or stock, so IRC §1091 does not apply to GRAM or any other digital asset; TON/GRAM peak buyers from June 2024 who sell at a loss and immediately repurchase may deduct the full loss without wash-sale disallowance under current law; the ticker name change from TON to GRAM does not affect this analysis.

Tax values verified July 2026 against IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Staking income treatment per Revenue Ruling 2023-14 (July 2023). Airdrop income treatment per Revenue Ruling 2019-24 (October 2019). The TON → GRAM rebrand (June 2026) is not a taxable event: only the name and ticker changed; no migration, swap, or on-chain state change occurred. Nominator pool staking reward timing reflects the same constructive receipt vs. actual-claim uncertainty as other manual-claim PoS protocols; apply your chosen position consistently and document it. Liquid staking and DeFi treatment reflects the current unsettled state of IRS guidance. The wash-sale exemption for cryptocurrency reflects current U.S. law. Airdrop dates (NOT May 16 2024, DOGS August 20 2024, HMSTR September 26 2024) sourced from CoinMarketCap and Decrypt reporting.