Pi Network’s native token PI price plummets nearly 60% this week, speculated to be primarily due to a significant official announcement that did not meet community expectations, triggering a crisis of trust within the community and concerns about future development.
（Background: Binance launched a vote on “Whether to list Pi coin,” with the community commenting: Wanting to gain new users without taking responsibility）
（Background Supplement: Pi Network refutes Bybit CEO’s fraud allegations: the name was misused, we are a legitimate platform! Pi coin rises over 20%）
Pi Network, which started with “mobile mining,” finally launched its mainnet and listed on several well-known exchanges on February 20 this year after more than six years of waiting.
The price of Pi coin, after going live, once approached $3 within the first week, but then began to decline steadily. After entering April, it oscillated in the $0.6 range for over a month, until mid-May when the community heard that Pi Network would make significant announcements at the Consensus 2025 conference that just concluded, leading to a price resurgence that briefly touched $1.67.
Community expectations dashed, Pi coin price halves
The large user community of Pi Network had high expectations for this event, with many anticipating the announcement of large-scale decentralized applications (dApps) to expand the currently sparse ecosystem. However, the significant news announced by the Pi core team at the conference was the establishment of Pi Network Ventures: an ecological fund amounting to $100 million aimed at supporting builders within the Pi ecosystem, which significantly deviated from the community’s general expectations, leading to a rapid spread of disappointment. X user Dr. Altcoin wrote:
“After six years of dedication, mining, promotion, and waiting, the pioneers were looking forward to a thriving ecosystem. However, we learned that of the promised 100 DApps, most have yet to materialize, and now we will use $100 million in funds to build them.”
Another community user mocked that the application method for the $100 million ecological fund of Pi Network Ventures was surprisingly done through a Google form, stating that this approach is a “Big Shame” for a project that has been ambitious and built for six years.
This is a big shame, has big has @PiCoreTeam claimed, you apply for there 100m pi network venture application with Google form. 6 years on building indeed.
— ETO (Earnathon) (@nwabishop) May 15, 2025
Community disappointment also reflected in the coin price
The price of Pi coin quickly declined from its peak, dropping more than 60% this week, with the current reported price at $0.72.
Future outlook and rebuilding trust
Of course, the Pi official team did make some achievements at the Consensus 2025 conference, outlining some technical development directions for the project in the future, such as plans for AI tools, exploring DePIN applications, and promoting a network upgrade called “Horizon.” Pi Network co-founder Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis also stated that the centralized nodes of the network have been removed, paving the way for more comprehensive decentralization.
However, it is evident that these actions cannot meet the expectations of the large community in the short term. If Pi Network hopes to successfully emerge from the current trust quagmire and move towards a grander vision, then adopting a more open and transparent communication strategy, actively and effectively responding to the reasonable concerns of the community, and demonstrating the fairness and openness of its operations through concrete actions and verifiable progress has become an urgent task.
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