Pi Network, which started as a mobile mining project, has officially announced that it will open its mainnet on February 20, 2025 at 8:00 UTC (4:00 PM Taiwan time) after more than six years of waiting. Currently, well-known exchanges such as OKX, Pionex, and MEXC have announced that they will list Bit spot trading.
OKX Announces Restrictions on Deposits and Trading in Certain Regions
However, OKX, which was the first to announce the listing of Bit, unexpectedly issued an announcement on the 14th, stating that based on the requirements of the Pi Network project, Bit will be implemented in an isolated mode, and users in certain countries and regions will not be able to deposit and trade:
Dear OKX users:
Based on the requirements of the Pi Network project, PI will be implemented in an isolated mode, and users in certain countries and regions will not be able to deposit and trade. Other relevant rules remain unchanged. Thank you for your understanding and support. OKX will continue to provide you with better products and better services!
OKX Team
February 14, 2025
After OKX's announcement, the community reported many cases of Chinese users being unable to transfer Bit. Community user @huigendeshen posted a screenshot today showing that OKX prohibits the transfer of Bit:
$PI OKX's operation is getting more and more interesting haha
The screenshot also states: "According to local laws and regulations, this token does not support internal transfers or exchanges, and can only be withdrawn from the chain."
According to reports, the Taiwanese community has not reported similar incidents, and users in other countries have not disclosed similar situations in the community, so OKX's "Bit ban" may be limited to the Chinese region. ( However, if the users are in the Chinese crypto circle, most of them may use VPN, so the restrictive measures may not have a big impact on them.)
Bybit CEO: Will Not List PI Token
On the other hand, after OKX sounded the alarm on the listing of Bit on the 12th, well-known exchanges such as Bitget, MEXC, and Pionex also announced that they will list the PI token. As of now, the top-tier Chinese exchanges Binance and Bybit have not announced the listing of the PI token, which has piqued the community's curiosity about the two exchanges' attitudes towards the Bit token.
On the evening of the 12th, the Bybit CEO tweeted a statement that Bybit will not list the Bit token:
Today, a bunch of people asked me if I want to list pi, and I said don't be fucking stupid, I used to do forex and get banners pulled by the boss every day to get my hard-earned money back, and I really don't want to do this in the crypto circle... Keep your distance. Thank you.
Since Bit can be mined on a mobile phone with just a few taps, the ecosystem is somewhat unique, with a large number of elderly users in Asia who are not very familiar with the crypto ecosystem. The Bybit CEO's comments seem to suggest that there may be a lot of controversy after the Bit token is listed.
