Welcome to Pi Coin’s chaos — A $12b crypto, a Binance listing rumor, a frustrated community, and a CEO calling it a Ponzi

Pi Coin recently hit a $12 billion market cap, but with vanishing tokens, migration failures, and Binance listing rumors swirling, is this the beginning of something big — or the start of a slow collapse?

Pi Coin’s wild ride on the market

Pi Network, the ambitious smartphone mining project that claims to have gathered an impressive 60 million users, has accomplished something many once thought improbable—a full-scale mainnet launch and the debut of a tradable token.

When Pi Coin (PI) officially made its way to exchanges on Feb. 20, the market response was nothing short of a roller coaster. Initially priced around $1.45, the token skyrocketed by more than 35% in less than an hour, reaching a peak of $2.10. 

However, just as quickly as it rose, the excitement began to fade, and within hours, the price plummeted to $1.01, cutting its market capitalization down to $7.02 billion.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Pi Coin has begun to show signs of stability, although not without its fair share of wild fluctuations. As of Mar. 12, the price sits at $1.71, representing a roughly 45% drop from its all-time high of $2.99 on Feb. 26. 

Despite this, the token’s market cap has grown significantly, now standing at $12.26 billion. This surge has propelled Pi Coin to become the 11th largest crypto by market cap—an impressive feat for a project that only recently became tradable.

But that’s not the only surprise. Over the past 24 hours, Pi Coin has defied the broader bearish market, posting a 20% gain—the highest among the top 100 cryptocurrencies. With trading volume exceeding $500 million, it has also become the most trending coin.

Pi Network’s rapid rise has drawn comparisons to past viral sensations like SafeMoon, which gained traction through aggressive marketing and referral-driven hype. But is Pi’s momentum sustainable, or is it just another fleeting craze?

Let’s dive in and explore what has happened since Pi Coin’s mainnet launch and token release—and how it has climbed its way to becoming the 11th most valuable cryptocurrency.

A bold experiment or the next crypto fallout?

Pi Network was born out of a simple yet ambitious vision—to make crypto mining accessible to anyone with a smartphone.

Founded in 2019 by Stanford graduates Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis and Dr. Chengdiao Fan, the project sought to remove the barriers of traditional mining, which demands expensive hardware and high energy consumption.

Instead of relying on proof-of-work like Bitcoin (BTC), Pi Network adopted the Stellar Consensus Protocol, allowing users to mine coins with minimal energy use by simply tapping a button daily.

This low-effort model fueled rapid adoption, attracting millions through a referral-based onboarding system. While this growth strategy supercharged user acquisition, it also drew criticism for resembling a multilevel marketing scheme, as users earned additional rewards for bringing in new participants.

After years in development, Pi Network finally opened its mainnet on Feb. 20, marking the first time its native token, Pi Coin, could be transferred and traded on exchanges.

This transition followed an extended test phase that began with an enclosed mainnet launch in December 2021, where KYC-verified users could interact within the ecosystem but had no access to external trading.

The shift to an open mainnet was a turning point, triggering a wave of exchange listings. OKX became the first major platform to support Pi, opening deposits on Feb. 12 and launching spot trading on Feb. 20.

Other exchanges, including Bitget, Gate.io, and MEXC, quickly followed, with Gate.io emerging as the dominant trading hub, processing over $200 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours.

Despite its rapid rise, Pi Coin remains absent from top-tier exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Upbit, and Kraken, keeping it outside the largest liquidity pools.

Adding fuel to the speculation, rumors are circulating that Binance may list Pi Coin on Mar. 14—a date that aligns with both Pi Day and the project’s six-year anniversary.

While no official confirmation has been made, the possibility has injected fresh excitement into the market, with many believing a Binance listing could be a game-changer for Pi’s liquidity and mainstream credibility.

Bybit’s CEO calls Pi Network a scam

The launch of Pi Coin may have been a major moment for its community, but it hasn’t come without controversy.

Bybit, one of the largest crypto exchanges that was recently in the headlines for falling victim to a $1.5 billion hack, made it clear that it wanted nothing to do with Pi, with CEO Ben Zhou even going so far as to call it a scam.

According to Zhou, Pi Network’s operations raised red flags, particularly around data privacy and pension losses, fueling skepticism about the project’s true nature.

Zhou also made it clear that Bybit had never requested to list Pi and that any claims suggesting otherwise were baseless.

The backlash from the Pi community was immediate, but Zhou remained firm, doubling down in an interview with VnExpress on Mar. 9. He compared Pi to memecoins but argued that it was far more dangerous. 

Memecoins, in his view, operate with full awareness of their speculative nature—people trade them knowing they are volatile and risky. Pi, on the other hand, allegedly misleads users with promises of easy money through a simple mining mechanism that lacks transparency.

Zhou pointed out that, despite Pi Network’s claims of being backed by a team with Stanford connections, no one has ever publicly seen or heard from these figures in a way that would validate the project’s credibility.

He also challenged Pi’s leadership to come forward and provide transparency, instead of launching what he described as baseless attacks on him and Bybit.

Beyond these concerns, Zhou also suggested that Pi Network functions in a way that resembles a Ponzi scheme, where early adopters benefit at the expense of newer participants. 

He even expressed doubts over the project’s long-term viability, highlighting how it has existed for years yet has failed to deliver on key promises.

While Pi Network’s model promotes itself as a way to democratize mining, Zhou argued that the project has yet to explain how its ecosystem generates sustainable value, leaving many users with nothing despite years of mining.

Pi Network responded with a statement of its own, attempting to set the record straight. The team distanced itself from the Chinese police warning, claiming that it targeted bad actors falsely using the Pi name, rather than Pi Network itself.

According to the Pi team, the warning had nothing to do with the core team but rather with bad actors falsely using the Pi name to carry out unauthorized activities.

They also rejected any allegations of misconduct, stressing that the project has operated methodically over the past six years to build a legitimate ecosystem.

They went on to deny any affiliation with the social media account that had attacked Zhou, stressing that neither Pi Network nor its team had ever commented on Bybit or its leadership.

Vanishing tokens, delayed migrations

The excitement surrounding Pi Coin’s mainnet launch has quickly given way to frustration, as mounting concerns about security and migration issues have put the project under intense scrutiny.

“Pi is a SCAM!!!!” one user raged on social media after watching his Pi balance vanish upon unlocking. The frustration is deepening as more Pioneers—Pi’s loyal users—watch their years of accumulated tokens disappear without recourse.

“One very sad thing is happening to naive Pioneers,” another user wrote. “The moment their Pi unlocks, it moves straight to a scammer’s address.”

Many victims had unknowingly interacted with fake Pi-related websites in the past, only for those old mistakes to come back and haunt them now that their tokens are finally becoming transferable.

“The scam phishing sites are now really well made,” one user pointed out, warning that the current setup makes it far too easy for attackers to imitate the Pi Browser. “Even experienced people might fall for those fake sites.”

But the frustration doesn’t stop with security concerns. Many Pioneers are also dealing with a different headache altogether: the ongoing struggle to migrate their Pi to the mainnet before the March 14, 08:00 UTC deadline.

“I have completed the mainnet checklist. I have been waiting weeks to migrate,” one Pioneer vented. “I have tried everything to solve this problem. Pi has done nothing to help. This needs to be fixed, or the deadline needs to be extended.”

A blockchain developer even called out Pi Network directly, calling their migration process “fraudulent and deceptive,” and urging regulators to investigate.

He pointed out that while blockchains like Solana (SOL) and Polygon (POL) can handle thousands of transactions per second, Pi users have been waiting months — some even years — just to move their tokens.

“You cannot see their infrastructure. You cannot see how the queue works. There is no decentralization. It’s just the core team controlling everything, he stated.”

Beyond the technical problems, millions of users have handed over sensitive personal data, including passports and government IDs, to pass KYC—yet they’re being forced to wait indefinitely to access their funds.

“Their app generates money from ads,” the blockchain developer pointed out. “Is Pi Network just using us for profit while pretending this is a real blockchain project?”

Adding to the frustration is Pi Network’s handling of the situation. The core team remains largely silent, issuing occasional statements but offering little in the way of direct solutions.

While Pi’s defenders insist that these delays are part of a structured rollout, critics argue that after six years of development, these excuses are wearing thin.

With just days left until the migration deadline, the situation is reaching a boiling point. Some are demanding immediate fixes, while others are calling for regulatory action, reporting Pi Network to authorities like the SEC and FTC.

And then there are those who, despite the mounting issues, still believe in the project’s vision and are hoping the core team can turn things around.

But if Pi Network doesn’t move fast to address these concerns — if users keep losing their tokens, migration issues persist, and trust continues to erode — it might not be long before even its most loyal supporters start to walk away.