What Pi Community promised
When Pi Community first hit the scene in 2019, it had a easy however compelling pitch: What in case you may mine cryptocurrency straight out of your cellphone — no costly gear, no huge electrical energy payments, only a faucet a day on an app?
It caught hearth. Thousands and thousands of individuals jumped on board, lured by the concept of “free” cellular mining and an opportunity to get in early on the subsequent huge factor. The app made it simple: You signed up, invited a couple of mates, tapped a button each 24 hours, and watched your Pi (PI) stability slowly develop. With the social referral mannequin fueling progress, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than over 70 million customers had signed up worldwide.
Do you know? Pi Community makes use of the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), which goals for power effectivity and decentralization, differing from Bitcoin’s energy-intensive proof-of-work.
What the Pi Community delivered
The roadmap was alleged to be gradual: begin with cellular mining, then transfer towards a testnet, KYC rollout and, lastly, full mainnet launch with actual buying and selling and utility. However that final step took lots longer than anybody anticipated.
After years in limbo, the Pi Community lastly opened its mainnet to exterior buying and selling in February 2025. That ought to’ve been an enormous win. However it didn’t go easily. For one, not all customers have been in a position to migrate their balances. Know Your Buyer (KYC) verification grew to become a bottleneck, and plenty of have been left questioning when — or if — they’d ever have the ability to entry the tokens they’d mined for years.
Then there was the worth. When Pi first began buying and selling on exterior platforms, the worth spiked, hitting as excessive as $2.98 in late February. However the hype didn’t final. As early adopters began promoting off their tokens and real-world use instances remained skinny, the worth slid exhausting. By early Might 2025, it had dropped to round $0.58, wiping out greater than 70% of its worth.
There’s additionally nonetheless no actual utility. You may’t spend Pi on a lot (solely in small, community-run markets and pilot applications). And whereas the crew talks about constructing a full ecosystem of apps and companies, it’s unclear how briskly — or how critically — that’s progressing.
Why the crypto neighborhood grew skeptical
Because the months become years, increasingly crimson flags began popping up, and the neighborhood began asking exhausting questions.
1. Nonetheless ready on the mainnet
Pi launched in 2019, and for years, customers stored listening to that the open mainnet was “simply across the nook.” First there was the testnet. Then the “enclosed mainnet.” Then a roadmap replace. The precise open community didn’t arrive till early 2025 — six years later. And by that point, loads of early believers had began shedding religion.
2. All roads lead again to the core crew
Regardless of the discuss of decentralization, the truth is that the Pi Core Staff has retained nearly whole management over the undertaking.
- Each lively mainnet node? Managed by them.
- A lot of the token provide? Nonetheless of their fingers.
That doesn’t sit effectively with crypto customers who consider in distributed energy and community-driven networks. Proper now, Pi feels extra like a non-public firm than a decentralized protocol.
3. The place’s the transparency?
One other sticking level has been the dearth of element on how Pi really works below the hood. The white paper is imprecise. There’s no clear breakdown of tokenomics, no timelines on when tokens unlock, no burn mechanics and no perception into provide management. With out that information, it’s exhausting for anybody to guage the well being or future worth of the undertaking.
4. Change listings
Regardless of years of hype, Pi nonetheless isn’t listed on main exchanges like Binance or Coinbase. It’s tradable on some platforms like OKX and Bitget, however even there, issues are shaky. Some customers have reported hassle withdrawing their tokens, with exchanges blaming “site visitors spikes” and different imprecise technical causes. All of it feels a bit fragile.
For example, one consumer on Bitget reported depositing 1,500 Pi tokens however discovered them inaccessible, with no clear timeline for decision. On OKX, withdrawals have been suspended for over 24 hours, with customers requested to supply ID and electronic mail verification however given imprecise responses like “Your request can be accomplished inside 24-48 hours.”
By April 2025, customers reported that MEXC, one other trade itemizing Pi, suspended Pi withdrawals, sparking considerations about liquidity and platform reliability. This was compounded by stories of enormous Pi transfers from MEXC, Gate.io and Bitget to OKX wallets, elevating suspicions of coordinated value manipulation or exchange-level points.
5. Pretend quantity and fading hype
At its peak in February 2025, Pi was buying and selling at practically $3 and producing billions in quantity. Quick ahead a couple of months, and that quantity has dropped off a cliff — right down to round $40 million. That type of collapse raises critical questions: Was the demand actual, or was it inflated by hypothesis, bots or inner market-making?
6. Customers trapped in a closed loop
Even now, many customers can’t really use or withdraw their Pi tokens. With out entry to actual exchanges or spending choices, they’re caught in a type of token limbo, watching a quantity go up in an app however with no strategy to convert that into something helpful.
Do you know? Whereas Pi Community claims over 70 million customers, blockchain knowledge signifies that solely about 9.11 million wallets exist, with roughly 20,000 displaying every day exercise.
Is Pi Community a rip-off or only a failed imaginative and prescient?
Not each crypto undertaking that stumbles is a rip-off. Some are simply formidable concepts that don’t fairly pan out. So, the place does Pi Community fall?
On the floor, Pi doesn’t match the traditional rip-off mould. There was no preliminary coin providing (ICO), no upfront funding required — simply an app that allows you to “mine” Pi by tapping your cellphone every day. That’s a low bar for entry, and it attracted hundreds of thousands.
However dig a little bit deeper, and issues get murkier. The entire system leans closely on referrals, encouraging customers to usher in extra individuals to spice up their mining fee. That type of construction begins to resemble a multi-level advertising and marketing scheme greater than a decentralized crypto undertaking.
Then there’s the monetization angle. The app is stuffed with advertisements, and customers are required to finish KYC verification, handing over private knowledge. So, when you’re not paying cash, you’re paying along with your consideration and knowledge.
Given these developments, critics equivalent to Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, and Justin Bons, founding father of Cyber Capital, have publicly expressed skepticism relating to Pi Community’s legitimacy.
Pi Community may not be a blatant fraud, however the mixture of opaque operations, aggressive referral ways and questionable monetization methods definitely raises eyebrows.
Do you know? Pi Community was formally launched on March 14, 2019 — Pi Day — symbolizing the mathematical fixed π (3.14).
Can Pi get well, or is it over?
Is there a path ahead for Pi Community? Presumably, nevertheless it’s a steep climb.
First, transparency is vital. Open-sourcing the code would enable the neighborhood to confirm what’s below the hood and construct belief.
Second, Pi wants actual utility. Proper now, holding Pi doesn’t provide a lot past the hope of future worth. Integrating Pi into precise use instances — like funds or decentralized purposes — would give the token goal.
Third, broader trade listings are essential. Presently, Pi is offered on a restricted variety of exchanges, which hampers liquidity and value discovery. Main exchanges like Binance and Coinbase have but to record Pi, citing considerations over transparency and regulatory compliance.
Fourth, decentralization should be greater than a buzzword. Presently, the Pi Core Staff maintains vital management over the community, which contradicts the ideas of decentralization. Implementing decentralized governance would distribute decision-making energy and align with the ethos of blockchain expertise.
However even when all these packing containers are checked, time is an element. Since its mainnet launch in early 2025, Pi’s value has dropped considerably, and consumer engagement has waned. Rebuilding momentum is difficult.
With out vital adjustments, the Pi Community dangers fading into obscurity, remembered extra for its unfulfilled guarantees than its achievements.
