Pi Network is a network that was introduced in 2019 by Stanford graduates. The reason why it became popular is that one could mine tokens on his phone without the use of costly hardware. More than 50 million users are registered in the app all over the world. However, with hype Pi has had delays. Its mainnet, on which the tokens may be exchanged freely, is not entirely open yet. Exchanges such as OKX have frequently been slow to withdraw or had KYC checks before activating wallets.
Why is this withdrawal significant?
The 380 million Pi transferred to OKX is equivalent to about 140 million in existing market price. This is an enormous amount, albeit a small percentage of the aggregate supply. The massive withdrawals are usually subject to rumour. They are predictive in crypto, occasionally, of announcements before big announcements or price spikes. In some other incidences, they have been associated with pump-and-dump schemes, in which prices are artificially inflated and then dumped. There are online users who state that this might be associated with the release of the mainnet by Pi. Some think it is, that is only market noise.
Pi’s Current Market Standing
CoinGecko records that Pi is currently trading at 31.29 (0.37) with a market cap of almost 1.5 billion. The amount of trading is still high in comparison to other stable coins such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. There was no official announcement of this withdrawal in the Pi Core Team in the last 24 hours. Rather, the greater part of the buzz is generated by social media mentions, with optimistic fans anticipating a pump and pessimists telling them that it might be overvalued.
Certain members of the Pi community are excited. They attribute the withdrawal as an indication by the big investors that they are about to do something significant. One of the comments on X was, “Powerful pump in the offing. However, not all people believe. Some other user rejected the figure claiming that 380 million was nothing as compared to the total supply of tokens in circulation of Pi who had over 8 billion tokens. Such divided response indicates an even bigger controversy: is Pi an authentic project in need of a breakout act, or is it a hyped one with excessively many hold-ups?
The Bigger Picture
Pi has been regularly compared to fledgling cryptocurrencies that established powerful communities rather than being actually valuable. Critics, however, note that the blockchain invented by Pi is not completely decentralized, and its economic model has not been peer-reviewed. In the meantime, the 380 million Pi withdrawal contributes to speculation. However, until it is confirmed by OKX or the Pi Core Team, it is difficult to tell whether it is an indicator that things really have changed or it will be another hype event.
