Pi Network: Between Celebration and the Brink of Collapse

(Dan Tri) - Celebrating 100 days of Open Mainnet, Pi Network faces the risk of a sell-off as millions of coins pour into the exchange. Trust and pressure are pulling the community into the biggest gamble ever.

From a mobile application that allows "mining" virtual currency for free, Pi Network has grown into a giant ecosystem with tens of millions of users. After more than 6 years of waiting, Open Mainnet has been activated, promising a future where Pi Coin has real value.

However, amid the announced achievements and expectations of GenAI technology, the "specter" of token "floods" and skepticism about practical application still looms. Is Pi Network really a cryptocurrency revolution for everyone, or just a risky, prolonged experiment?

2 Parallel Worlds : Festival inside the “closed garden” and storm waiting outside the door

One morning in late June, while the prices of most cryptocurrencies were in the red, an unusual signal flashed on blockchain tracking tools. In just 24 hours, about 6.5 million Pi coins were transferred massively to the wallets of major exchanges such as Gate.io, Bitget, and OKX.

In the financial world, this is a classic sign, a “red flag” that often signals a large-scale “dumping” by holders. This influx of money brings the total number of Pi “waiting” on exchanges to more than 359 million tokens, a ticking time bomb that can be activated at any time.

Ironically, this "hidden storm" occurred right after Pi Core Team, the project development team, solemnly announced the "100 days of Open Mainnet" report with a series of impressive achievements.

It's like two parallel worlds exist, unrelated to each other: one of growth numbers, new projects and promises of a "utility-driven" future and one of brutal market forces, where the value of an asset is determined by the harsh laws of supply and demand, not by claims.

This stark contrast has pushed Pi Network into one of the most sensitive and pivotal stages in its more than 6-year history. On one side is the effort to build a digital economy from scratch, on the other side is the pressure to sell from the very people who believed in the project.

Will the utility ecosystem grow in time to "support prices" before the flood of dumping hits? This is the billion-dollar question that not only the 13 million KYC (Know Your Customer) users but the entire crypto market is holding its breath to watch.

Calculated Patience: Decoding the Pi Core Team's “Utility First” Strategy

To understand the perseverance of the Pi Core Team, we have to step back and look at the long-term strategy they have always pursued: "Utility First". Instead of rushing to list their tokens to create a speculative fever like thousands of other projects, they chose a more thorny path, which is to build an ecosystem with real-world use value first. They believe that "everything worth having takes time and patience".

The “100 Days of Open Mainnet” report since February is a summary of Pi Network's development strategy, with numbers showing incredible scale and expansion speed.

Pi Network has just announced an important update, reviewing the achievements in the 100 days since the official network launch (Illustration: The Currency Analytics).

The Mainnet community has grown strongly with more than 3 million new users completing KYC and transferring Pi to the Mainnet wallet, bringing the total number of “citizens” in the Pi economy to more than 13 million. This is a milestone that affirms the network's undiminished appeal after its official opening.

On the technical infrastructure, Pi's decentralized network is also firmly consolidated. More than 400,000 computers (Nodes) are operating globally, creating a stable, highly distributed blockchain system that is almost immune to external attacks.

The utility ecosystem around Pi has also begun to take shape. Notably, the PiFest 2025 event attracted more than 125,000 registered sellers, showing that the demand for Pi transactions in real life is completely real. At the same time, the exclusive digital domain name service *.pi also created a lot of attraction, with more than 57,000 people participating in the auction, the total value of bets exceeded 3 million Pi, thereby contributing to "burning" a large amount of supply from circulation.

Another bright spot is Pi Network Ventures, a $100 million investment fund announced to support startups building applications on the Pi platform, with a particular focus on the gaming sector. A typical example is the FruityPi game developed by the Pi team itself, opening the wave of gamification of the Pi Network ecosystem.

The Pi Core Team's argument is clear, that launching an "Enclosed Network" for a long time is a deliberate strategic decision. It allows the community to build and test applications without being affected by crazy market fluctuations. It helps verify the identity of millions of people, ensuring a "clean" and legally compliant network.

Essentially, they are trying to “create jobs” for Pi before officially “releasing” it into society. They want Pi to go public not as a token with no owner for speculation, but as an accepted means of payment in a functioning digital economy.

The Wall of Skepticism and Selling Pressure: When the Market Doesn't Believe Promises

While the Pi Core Team is painting a “rosy picture” of a future of utility, the outside financial world is looking at Pi Network through a completely different lens – one of skepticism and telling numbers.

Cem Dilmegani, an analyst at AIMultiple, has made a scathing assessment, arguing that Pi Network operates as an “affiliate marketing” system, where users are enticed by the promise of future rewards to invite new people. According to him, the main beneficiaries are not the users, but the founding team through the sale of advertising on the highly trafficked app.

Once the token becomes tradable, he warns, a wave of selling will cause the price to crash, de-incentivizing users to log in and thereby reducing the app's value to advertisers.

Centralized app Pi Network has hit 13 million verified accounts, but critics say this has brought no clear benefits to users (Illustration: Beincrypto).

The market numbers seem to support this argument:

70% Crash: Since its peak in May, the value of “Pi IOU” (the unofficial version traded on some exchanges) has evaporated by 70%. The crash began, ironically, shortly after co-founder Nicolas Kokkalis appeared at a major AI conference, suggesting the market is increasingly wary of claims without any basis in fact.

GenAI Scam?: The recent 5% rally was based entirely on a vague teaser about the integration of artificial intelligence (GenAI), scheduled to be announced on June 28. However, many investors suspect this is just a "buy the rumor, sell the truth" trick to distract the public from a much bigger event.

The 268.4 Million Pi Bomb: This is the scariest number. According to the schedule, 268.4 million Pi tokens will be "unlocked" and released into the market in July. This is the largest unlock ever, and in the history of cryptocurrencies, large unlocks often lead to terrifying selling pressure, enough to sink any asset if market confidence is shaken.

The influx of 6.5 million Pi into exchanges is part of this bigger picture. It shows that a significant portion of Pi holders are no longer patient. They don't want to wait for utility, they just want to take profits. Data from Google Trends also shows that public interest in the keyword "Pi Network" has dropped to a very low level, signaling community fatigue.

The final gamble: Will real utilities be able to "save prices" in time before the flood?

After a strong increase of 6.68% at the beginning of the week, Pi price is holding an important support zone. As of the morning of June 25, Pi was trading at 0.54 USD. Despite a slight correction, Pi still holds an important psychological support zone around 0.50 USD, located on the short-term uptrend line connecting the bottoms of May 17, May 31 and June 18.

The biggest driver of recent attention to Pi Network is the rumored integration of Generative AI technology.

Pi Network is at a crossroads. There is no denying the remarkable efforts and achievements in building a huge community and a complex technological infrastructure. But at the same time, the iron laws of the financial market cannot be ignored.

The project is in a breathless race against time. On one hand, there is the speed of building real applications, stores that accept payments, games that integrate Pi. On the other hand, there is the countdown to the massive token "flood" and the increasingly exhausted patience of millions of users.

Pi is at a turning point in history. Strengths such as a huge community, mobile-friendly mining mechanism, and real-world adoption give Pi a competitive edge. However, weak trading activity, volatility after the Mainnet launch, and regulatory risks are serious challenges (Illustration: The Philox).

The Pi2Day announcement and July unlock will be two extreme tests of Pi Network's endurance.

Positive Scenario: If the Pi Core Team actually announces a groundbreaking GenAI product, or a clear Open Mainnet roadmap with the backing of major partners, they could revive confidence and absorb some of the selling pressure.

Negative scenario: If the Pi2Day announcement turns out to be a vague promise, combined with the pressure from the July unlock, the market could see a mass exodus. Pi’s value could quickly erode, and the dream of a “people’s currency” could face collapse.

After all, Pi Network is no longer just a story about a coin that is "mined" for free, but is a bold test for a new economic model: can community strength and long-term trust withstand the increasing wave of speculation and profit-taking pressure? The answer will not be on paper, but evident through every price fluctuation on the exchange.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/pi-network-giua-tiec-mung-va-lan-ranh-sup-do-20250625102431809.htm