PI Network Plunges from $3 to $0.47 Without Distributing Tokens
PI Network listed at $0.10, touched $3, and now trades around $0.47. Meanwhile, millions peine an app daily for five years awaiting a promise: that token would eventually hold value. The day arrived, and most did not know what to do with it. Those who sold on day one did.
From $0.10 listing to $3 peak: the token's roller coaster
The trading history resembles a sawtooth pattern. The token entered markets at $0.10, climbed to $3, plummeted to $0.60, rebounded to $3, and has since declined to a low of $0.40, settling around $0.47. Each segment of this sawtooth had its own ritual: messages of "clear buy signal" with every bounce, warnings about dollar resistance, and a trickle of increasingly unsustainable figures. $0.69. Then $0.52. Then $0.47.
The underlying issue is not volatility, which is expected for a newly listed cryptocurrency, but the disconnect between trading price and movable supply. Most tokens generated over years remain unavailable to holders. Price forms on a small fraction of total supply, explaining both spikes and crashes.
Five Years Pressing a Button: The Network Grew via Referrals
The acquisition model relied on a daily gesture: open the app and press. This gesture, repeated for three, four, or five years, equated to a pending token. The network grew through referrals: each new participant added mining capacity for the inviter. The result was a massive community, organized primarily on Telegram and Discord, and an incentive structure where recruiters wielded more influence.
Reference figures emerged in this ecosystem, individuals who explained the project, answered questions, and at various times recommended holding positions. One is credited with urging not to sell when the token traded above $2, before the first major crash. The breakdown of this trust bond is now central: much anger targets those who put their face to the project, not the algorithm.
How Much Money Has Been Extracted from PI Network?
Known amounts fall into two categories: small for most, comfortable for a few. Some mined for five years, sold when allowed, and converted proceeds to 8,000 euros, transferring them to bitcoin. Others placed available coins between 1.2 and 1.8 euros per unit. And some sold nothing and continue waiting.
The circulating skeptical calculation assumes simplicity: buying 1,000 euros worth at $0.60 —about 1,666 coins— and selling at the $3 peak. Yields 5,000 euros, multiplied by five, yielding a line-by-line breakdown that surprises. The arithmetic is correct yet misleading: it requires buying exactly at the minimum and selling exactly at the maximum, something almost no one achieves.
The Airdrop Distributed Until 2028
The calendar is the most uncomfortable data point. Pending token distribution proceeds slowly and, at current rates, would extend to 2028. That is three more years of waiting for those with blocked or unclaimed coins, with no guarantee the price holds during the journey. The figure circulating about developers —more than $200 million obtained upon market entry— fuels suspicion that the design favors those controlling the calendar.
Is PI Network a Scam?
To date, no citable judicial ruling classifies the project as fraud, despite the term circulating freely. What exists is a pattern documented by participants: delayed deliveries, collapsing prices, and evident asymmetry between what promoters take and what button-pushers recover.
Public discussion has split into two camps. Some argue it was an acquisition scheme with a layer of technological illusion. Others defend the project remains alive, delays were predictable, and time will vindicate the patient. Neither position can yet be closed.
One data point summarizes the rest: the $0.40 minimum has been touched, and distribution ends in 2028. How many who endured this far would have sold at $3 if no one had told them to wait?
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication.
Read the full discussion (214 replies).
Pi Network is mined for free on mobile phones and promises to reset the global financial system. Its real price doesn't exist yet, and the mainnet remains closed.
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