Pi Coin has recently hit a $12 billion market cap, but vanishing tokens, migration failures, and Binance listing rumors are fueling debates about whether this is a major breakthrough or a slow collapse.
Pi Coin’s Wild Market Ride
Pi Network, the ambitious smartphone mining project boasting 60 million users, has defied expectations by launching its mainnet and a tradable token. Since its February 20 debut on exchanges, Pi Coin’s price has fluctuated wildly:
- Initial price: $1.45
- Peak price: $2.10 (within the first hour)
- Crash: Down to $1.01, slashing its market cap to $7.02 billion
- Current price (March 12): $1.71, a 45% drop from its all-time high of $2.99 (February 26)
- Market cap: $12.26 billion, making Pi Coin the 11th largest cryptocurrency
Despite broader market weakness, Pi Coin has surged 20% in 24 hours, leading trading volume to exceed $500 million. This unusual momentum has drawn comparisons to viral crypto sensations like SafeMoon, which relied on referral-driven hype.
A Bold Experiment or the Next Crypto Fallout?
Founded in 2019 by Stanford graduates Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis and Dr. Chengdiao Fan, Pi Network aimed to make crypto mining accessible via smartphones using the Stellar Consensus Protocol, eliminating the need for energy-intensive mining rigs.
- The project’s referral-based growth model rapidly attracted millions of users.
- Critics claim this resembles a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme.
- After years in development, Pi Network finally opened its mainnet on February 20.
The launch triggered exchange listings:
- OKX was the first major exchange to list Pi (Feb. 12 deposits, Feb. 20 spot trading).
- Bitget, Gate.io, and MEXC quickly followed.
- Gate.io leads in Pi trading volume ($200M+ daily).
Binance listing rumors for March 14—which coincides with Pi Day and Pi Network’s 6th anniversary—have injected fresh excitement, though no official confirmation has been made.
Bybit CEO Labels Pi Network a Scam
Not everyone is convinced by Pi Network’s legitimacy. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has outright called Pi a scam, citing:
- Chinese police warnings (2023) about Pi Network targeting elderly users, allegedly leading to personal data leaks and pension losses.
- Concerns over data privacy and Ponzi-like structures.
- Zhou denied Bybit ever considering a Pi listing, dismissing claims as baseless.
“Pi misleads users with promises of easy money but lacks transparency.” – Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit
Pi Network responded, insisting:
- The Chinese police warnings targeted scammers misusing the Pi name, not Pi itself.
- The project has operated transparently for six years.
- The core team has no connection to social media accounts attacking Zhou.
Vanishing Tokens and Delayed Migrations
Despite Pi Coin’s momentum, frustration is growing over missing tokens and migration delays:
- Users report unlocked Pi disappearing to scammers.
- Many had unknowingly interacted with fake Pi-related sites.
- March 14 is the migration deadline, but some users can’t access their funds.
A blockchain developer slammed Pi’s migration process as fraudulent, arguing that:
- Pi lacks transparency about how its migration queue functions.
- Unlike Solana or Polygon, which process thousands of transactions per second, Pi users have waited months—or even years—to move funds.
Many users, having handed over sensitive KYC data, now fear that Pi Network is stalling while profiting from ad revenue on its app.
What’s Next for Pi Coin?
With the migration deadline days away, Pi Network faces mounting pressure to fix ongoing issues. If:
- Tokens keep vanishing
- Migration remains delayed
- Trust continues to erode
Even Pi’s most loyal supporters may walk away. Will Binance’s rumored listing be a game-changer, or is Pi Coin heading for collapse?
