Coin issuance 2025 blood, sweat, and tears! Binance's launch failed, and the core team upgrade did not prevent the crash

Pi Network’s mainnet, delayed for five years, launched on February 19, 2025. After reaching a new high of $2.99, the price collapsed, dropping to $0.20 in December. The failure to list on Binance triggered a sell-off. The core team launched Pi Ventures fund, Pi App Studio AI platform, and Pi DEX, but these efforts failed to prevent the price collapse.

Pi’s Mainnet Celebration in February and the 3-Week Crash

The Pi community grew tired of the mainnet delay, which was postponed multiple times in late 2024 and early 2025. On February 19, the mainnet finally went live, bringing the PI token to exchanges like Gate. In the following weeks, community enthusiasm peaked. The team extended KYC grace periods, reintroduced PiFest, and celebrated Pi community app initiatives with .pi domains, as well as Pi Day 2025—all happening in March.

However, the celebration was very short-lived. After hitting a historic high of $2.99 in late February, the momentum almost instantly vanished, and the asset entered a prolonged bear market. From a technical perspective, the mainnet launch meant hundreds of millions of PI tokens, previously locked, entered circulation. The sudden surge in supply, without matching demand, exerted enormous selling pressure on the price.

Even more brutal was the distribution structure. Early users who accumulated large amounts of low-cost or zero-cost PI over five years immediately chose to cash out once trading opened. The price plummeted 95%, from $2.99 to $0.172, driven by continuous selling over several months. Over 1.1 million pioneers watched their five-year mining efforts evaporate within weeks.

During the price collapse, the Pi core team did not remain passive. After PiFest, in April, they announced Pi Advertising Network expansion plans, opening to all ecosystem applications. In early May, network functionalities were further expanded, adding wallet activation options. However, these technological milestones failed to reverse the price decline, as retail investors focused on quick liquidity rather than ecosystem development.

The $1.70 Fake Rebound Driven by Binance Listing Rumors

In mid-May, the Pi community began closely watching Binance listing rumors, causing the price to spike above $1.70. This surge was entirely driven by speculation, with retail investors betting that Binance listing would bring massive liquidity and new users. However, this was another rumor; the core team actually announced the formation of Pi Network Ventures, a fund with a $100 million investment in innovative startups.

When the truth was revealed, the price sharply declined. This classic “rumor buy, fact sell” pattern played out vividly with Pi. From $1.70, the price continued to decline over the following months, indicating the market’s skepticism toward ecosystem initiatives like Pi Ventures. Retail investors sought short-term trading opportunities from exchange listings, not long-term value stories.

In late June, the team celebrated Pi2Day and launched Pi App Studio’s official entry into AI, allowing developers to build Pi ecosystem applications with AI tools, demonstrating the team’s focus on technological innovation. However, amid the ongoing price decline, these milestones received little community excitement. When pioneers’ assets shrank by 80% to 90%, enthusiasm for AI tools or developer platforms waned.

During summer, the team actively promoted the first mainnet hackathon, which lasted several months and concluded in October, with winners announced only in December. This slow execution became one of Pi’s criticized features. Meanwhile, some co-founders participated in major conferences like TOKEN2049 in Singapore, where Dr. Fan announced the release of Pi DEX and AMM liquidity pools on-site.

2025 Pi Technical Milestones Timeline

February 19 Mainnet Launch: The network officially started, with PI tokens listed on exchanges like Gate, and the price surged to a record high of $2.99.

May Pi Ventures Established: Announced a $100 million PI fund to invest in innovative startups, but failed to prevent the subsequent price collapse after the fake rebound from $1.70.

June Pi App Studio: Entered AI with the launch of AI development tools platform, allowing developers to build Pi ecosystem applications, showing the team’s ambition for technological transformation.

October Pi DEX and AMM Launch: Announced at TOKEN2049, providing decentralized exchange and liquidity pools, laying DeFi infrastructure for Pi ecosystem.

$0.172 Historical Low and the $0.20 Support Line

By early October, the value of Pi had shrunk by nearly 95%, falling to a historic low of $0.172. This price level was devastating for pioneers who had mined for five years. Many had hoped PI would reach tens of dollars or higher before the mainnet, fueled by false predictions circulating within communities like GCV (Global Currency Value). When reality fell far below expectations, disappointment turned into anger and selling.

However, PI also has some positive factors. It managed to hold the $0.20 support level. Since the October low, the price has slightly rebounded and is currently trading above $0.20. This stabilization may be attributed to several factors: first, most of the selling pressure has been released, leaving long-term believers as the remaining holders. Second, there may be large limit buy orders around $0.20, providing support when the price hits that level. Third, some investors believe the current price already reflects negative factors, prompting them to buy on dips.

The Pi core team continued to push technological development toward the end of the year. In November, they released network version 0.5.4, with further upgrades to Pi App Studio, and established partnerships with CiDi Games to accelerate Web3 gaming participation. December ended with holiday activities and new updates for Pi DEX and AMM. The team also introduced fast-track features to simplify and improve KYC processes. In October, Pi Network Ventures made its first investment in OpenMind.

2026 Outlook: Can Ecosystem Development Reverse the Downtrend?

Some AI platforms believe that under certain conditions, Pi’s performance in 2026 could improve. These conditions include: top exchanges like Binance truly listing (not just rumors), ecosystem applications reaching a critical mass to generate real usage demand, and KYC completion rates significantly increasing to unlock more user trading rights.

The fundamental challenge for Pi is transforming from a “mining game” to a “practical ecosystem.” Over five years, tens of millions of users participated in mining, but most did so to obtain free tokens rather than to use Pi for payments or applications. The launch of Pi DEX, Pi App Studio, and Pi Ventures is an effort to establish real use cases, but this transformation takes time and success is uncertain.

From a price perspective, holding above $0.20 is the minimum prerequisite for a rebound in 2026. Falling below this level could see the next support at $0.15 or even lower. To attract investors again, the price needs to break above $0.50 and stabilize, recovering 75% of the decline. A more optimistic scenario is a return to above $1, but this requires substantial ecosystem breakthroughs or genuine top exchange listings.

For pioneers still holding Pi, 2025 was a painful year but also a harsh lesson from the market. Unrealistic price expectations, blind chasing of rumors, and lack of risk management are the root causes of retail losses. Whether Pi can turn around in 2026 depends on whether the core team can translate technological promises into real value.