Pi Network (PI) After 1 Year: Growth, Challenges, and What’s Ahead

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Pi Network (PI) After 1 Year: Growth, Challenges, and What’s Ahead

Pi Network, a cryptocurrency project that sparked debate, launched in 2019. However, its users didn’t begin trading its token, PI, until February 2025.

As an analyst, I’ve been closely watching the project over the last year, and while the Core Team has consistently delivered upgrades alongside ecosystem growth, we’ve unfortunately seen a significant drop in PI’s price. The project still faces hurdles, and I’m hearing increasing concern from community members. The big question now is whether the planned future developments will be enough to spark a strong recovery, or if the current downward trend will continue.

Happy First Birthday, PI

A year ago, Pi Network released its Open Network, making PI cryptocurrency available to the public. Bitget, OKX, and MEXC were the first exchanges to begin listing and trading it.

The asset’s price started between $1.68 and $1.72 on its first day. Demand from traders and investors quickly grew, and by the end of February last year, the price hit a record high of around $3. This growth also caused its total market value to surge past $18 billion, making it one of the top 15 cryptocurrencies.

The price briefly surged, but quickly declined in the following months. Several factors may have contributed to this drop, including the continued release of tokens, decreasing interest from investors, concerns about the project’s legitimacy – with some calling it a scam – and a lack of response from Binance.

There were reports that Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange, was considering listing PI, just like Bitget, OKX, and MEX. Listing PI could increase its value by making it easier to trade, more widely known, and more credible. Binance even asked its users to vote on whether they wanted PI available on the platform, and over 86% voted in favor, but Binance hasn’t added the token yet.

Pi Network’s cryptocurrency, PI, has experienced brief price increases recently due to announcements from the development team. However, it’s currently valued at about $0.17, which is a significant 94% drop from its highest price ever.

As an analyst, I’ve been following the recent updates closely, and a major focus has been improving the user verification process – something that’s been a pain point for a lot of people. For example, the team launched ‘Fast Track KYC’ in September 2025, which is designed to get our ‘Pioneers’ involved in the Mainnet ecosystem much faster than before.

Last month, we learned that over 3.36 million more users finished the necessary verification steps after a new system was implemented to review pending KYC cases. Recently, the team also launched a technical improvement designed to help many more Pioneers move to the Miannet network. They expect this will allow around 2.5 million users who were previously blocked from migrating to now successfully do so.

Over the past year, our project has seen some exciting progress. We launched Pi Network Ventures, a fund aiming to invest $100 million in promising startups within the Pi ecosystem. We’ve also started exploring the potential of AI with the introduction of Pi App Studio. To further foster innovation, we hosted our first Hackathon, and we’ve partnered with CiDi Games to boost engagement in Web3 gaming. These developments represent significant steps forward for our community and the broader ecosystem.

The Core Team recently announced that the upgrade to Protocol v19.6 is now complete. They’re moving on to v19.9, which will be the last step before the major v20 update. Node operators are advised to update their systems and watch for more details soon, according to a recent post.

What Lies Ahead?

A lot of Pi Network users are optimistic about 2026, anticipating significant developments. Specifically, March 12th is being highlighted as a potential launch date for a major upgrade to the Pi DEX. If this upgrade happens as expected, it could boost confidence in Pi and encourage more practical uses for the cryptocurrency.

There’s been talk that major cryptocurrency exchanges, like Kraken, might start letting people trade this token soon.

Pi Network enthusiasts are eagerly anticipating March 14th – or Pi Day – because the date resembles the mathematical symbol for pi (3.14). In 2025, a significant expansion of the Pi Network ecosystem happened on this day, and the community is now wondering if something similar will happen this year.

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2026-02-20 12:15