Gram (GRAM) Plummets 3.25% Amid Terrorism Charges Against Telegram Founder

Gram (GRAM) Plummets Amid Terrorism Charges Against Telegram Founder

The 3.25 percentage point drop in Gram (GRAM) over the last 31 hours is primarily driven by Russia’s new terrorism related charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov and the regulatory risk they create.

Deep Dive

Terrorism Charges Against Pavel Durov

Russian security services announced formal terrorism related charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov and placed him on an international wanted list. Russia’s FSB alleges Telegram failed to remove channels, chats, and bots used by Ukrainian special services and extremist groups to coordinate sabotage, mass killings, and cyber fraud inside Russia, and has charged Durov under the Russian criminal code for assisting terrorist activity. Several reports note that Russia has moved from general moderation complaints to explicitly framing the case as wartime terrorism and state security. Multiple crypto focused outlets report that GRAM (formerly Toncoin) dropped in early trading immediately after these charges became public, adding to its recent weekly losses and explicitly linking the move to the Durov news. One detailed write up states that the reaction is milder than the 2024 French arrest shock, but highlights that this escalation introduces new concerns for banks, fiat on ramps, and exchanges that support GRAM because of anti terrorism and anti money laundering rules tied to the new allegations Russia charges Pavel Durov with terrorism and GRAM falls. A separate report echoes that GRAM fell on the news, stressing that the terrorism framing is more severe than earlier French investigations focused on cooperation with law enforcement, and again calling out the risk that exchanges or payment providers could restrict GRAM access for compliance reasons if the case escalates further Russia’s terrorism case and GRAM price reaction. A fresh, high profile legal escalation against the project’s associated founder is the clearest and most direct catalyst for GRAM’s short term drawdown in the last day or so.

Rebrand Tightens Token’s Link To Durov And Telegram

Gram’s own positioning makes it especially sensitive to any Durov or Telegram headline. Gram (GRAM) is the native token of The Open Network, a layer 1 originally incubated by Telegram that is now developed by an independent community and the TON Foundation, but historically associated with the Durov brothers and the Telegram Open Network vision Gram (GRAM) overview. After the SEC halted the original Gram sale, the community relaunched the chain and token as Toncoin. In 2026, the project rebranded back to the Gram name, explicitly reconnecting the asset to its original branding and to Telegram’s broader Web3 strategy, including plans for a native GRAM wallet for Telegram’s user base, as described in coverage of the rebrand and subsequent wallet announcements. The same articles that describe the FSB charges emphasize that the rebrand and wallet roadmap have made investors see GRAM more as a Telegram and Durov linked asset, so founder legal shocks now have a larger narrative and reputational impact on the token than during the Toncoin era. The reports explicitly note that founder related risk had already been partially priced in after the earlier French case, but that these terrorism charges elevate perceived compliance risk for GRAM venues. Because Gram has been re framed in the market as the token aligned with Telegram’s roadmap and Durov’s vision, any escalation in Durov’s personal legal risk transmits quickly into GRAM’s price.

Market Backdrop And Relative Underperformance

The broader crypto market has been soft, but not enough to explain Gram’s move on its own. Over roughly the last 24 hours, total crypto market capitalization is down about 0.72 percent, and the altcoin market cap ex BTC is down about 1.07 percent. This reflects a mildly risk off backdrop but not a major crash in large caps or altcoins. Over the same window, Gram is down about 5.2 percent with a market cap near $3.78 billion and 24 hour volume around $83.09 million, and about 8.47 percent over 7 days. That is materially weaker than the altcoin basket, pointing to idiosyncratic pressure rather than a purely macro move. Social and technical commentary on X during this period mostly discusses chart patterns, support or resistance around the 2 dollar area, and future upside targets, but does not identify any protocol exploit, listing or delisting, or tokenomic shock. The only concrete, time aligned fundamental catalyst in the last roughly 31 hours that coincides with the drop is the terrorism case against Durov and its impact on perceived regulatory and counterparty risk for GRAM. General market weakness may have contributed a small portion of the move, but the magnitude of GRAM’s decline relative to the broad market strongly indicates that the Durov terrorism charges are the primary driver of the recent 3.25 percentage point move.

Conclusion

The best supported explanation for Gram’s roughly 3 to 5 percent decline over the last 31 hours is the market’s reaction to Russia’s new terrorism related charges and international warrant against Telegram founder Pavel Durov, amplified by Gram’s post rebrand positioning as a Telegram aligned asset. Broader crypto has been only modestly weaker, and there is no evidence of a chain level failure, tokenomic event, or major listing change, so the recent price movement is best understood as a rapid repricing of founder and regulatory risk specific to GRAM rather than a purely macro driven sell off. Confidence: High, because multiple independent news sources explicitly link GRAM’s decline to the newly announced terrorism charges against Pavel Durov and broader market moves are comparatively small. As of 29 Jul 2026 8:56pm UTC using CMC live price, CMC market overview, CMC project FAQ, news articles, and posts from X.