The Great Index Shift: Why Gram (Toncoin) Is Replacing Shiba Inu in Major Crypto Indices

IX Asia Indexes confirmed this week that Gram, the token formerly known as Toncoin, will replace Shiba Inu in the benchmark ixCrypto Index (IXCI) following the 2026 second-quarter constituent review.

The change, announced on July 17 and set to take effect on July 24, keeps the index's total constituent count steady at 19, with one addition and one deletion.

Gram goes in. Shiba Inu comes out.

What Actually Changed

The IXCI is one of the more closely watched institutional crypto benchmarks, tracked in real time on Bloomberg (page IXCI) alongside its own dedicated web portal. It is widely used by fund managers and structured-product issuers as a reference point for building crypto-linked investment products.

Being removed from the index is more than a symbolic change. It can influence how much passive and semi-passive capital flows toward or away from a token, since products benchmarked to the index typically rebalance their holdings to match the updated constituent list.

According to the review results:

• The post-rebalance index now covers 83.17% of the free-float-adjusted cryptocurrency market capitalization (excluding stablecoins).
• 90-day average trading volume coverage fell to 64.34%.
• The report noted this was the first decline of more than 10 percentage points since 2018.

Analysts attributed most of the drop to Bitcoin and Ethereum trading volumes falling by more than 24% during the second quarter, rather than weakness in any single altcoin.

Why Shiba Inu Fell Out

The timing aligns with a difficult period for SHIB.

The meme coin sector recorded its largest monthly decline of 2026 in June, and Shiba Inu itself:

• Fell roughly 24% during the month
• Dropped to a five-year low below $0.0000041
• Briefly slipped out of the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization

By mid-July, SHIB was trading near $0.0000042, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.4–2.5 billion.

On-chain data showed that large holders continued withdrawing tokens from exchanges despite weak price action—a pattern typically associated with accumulation rather than panic selling. However, that buying activity has not yet been enough to reverse the broader downtrend.

Index committees generally evaluate constituents using a combination of:

• Free-float market capitalization
• Trading volume
• Market liquidity

A prolonged decline across these metrics makes it increasingly difficult for a token to retain its place in an institutional benchmark.

Why Gram, and Why Now

Gram's inclusion comes with a notable backstory.

The token had been known as Toncoin for the past six years after The Open Network (TON) distanced itself from the original Gram branding following the 2020 SEC enforcement action against Telegram.

That legal uncertainty has largely faded.

On June 15, a community vote supported by Telegram founder Pavel Durov approved restoring both the Gram name and the GRAM ticker, receiving more than 81% approval.

The transition included:

• Automatic migration of wallet balances
• Automatic migration of staking positions
• Exchange support for the new GRAM ticker
• Trading-pair updates across major exchanges, including Binance

Beyond the rebranding, Gram's addition reflects several underlying strengths:

• A mature blockchain network
• Deep integration with Telegram's ecosystem
• An active network of wallets and mini-applications
• A market capitalization that has remained among the largest digital assets

For an institutional benchmark designed to represent the broader crypto market, these characteristics make Gram a more defensible constituent than a token whose primary use case remains speculative trading and social-media momentum.

The Bigger Picture

Quarterly index reshuffles rarely move markets by themselves, but they often reveal how institutional investors are reassessing the digital asset landscape.

Meme coins enjoyed years of extraordinary attention—and in many cases extraordinary returns—but their volatility and relatively limited fundamental utility make them less suitable for benchmarks intended for:

• Pension funds
• ETFs
• Structured investment products
• Institutional portfolios

By contrast, utility-focused blockchain networks with:

• Consistent transaction activity
• Active developer ecosystems
• Stronger regulatory positioning
• Sustainable user adoption

are generally easier for institutional investment committees and compliance teams to justify holding.

What to Watch Next

Investors should closely monitor how GRAM trades around the July 24 implementation date.

Index-tracking funds will need to rebalance their portfolios during this period, which often produces temporary spikes in:

• Trading volume
• Liquidity
• Short-term price volatility

Additional developments worth watching include:

• Whether other crypto index providers make similar constituent changes
• Whether Shiba Inu experiences additional outflows from index-linked products
• Whether declining trading-volume coverage across major crypto indices continues into the next quarterly review

If that trend persists, it may indicate weakening liquidity across the broader cryptocurrency market rather than problems unique to any individual token.