Welcome to Pi Coin's Chaos – $12 billion cryptography, Binance list rumours, frustrating community, and CEO called Ponzi

Pi Coin has recently reached a market capitalization of $12 billion, but with the disappearance of tokens, obstacles to transition, and rumors of Binance lists swirling, is this the beginning of something big or will it slowly collapse?

Pi Coin's Wild Ride on The Market

Pi Network is an ambitious smartphone mining project that claims to have attracted an impressive 60 million users, achieving the debut of many people they once thought unlikely: full-fledged mainnet launches and tradeable tokens.

When Pi Coin (PI) officially entered the exchange on February 20th, the market response was nothing more than a roller coaster. Initially at around $1.45, the tokens surged over 35% in less than an hour, reaching a peak of $2.10.

But just as it rose, excitement began to fade, with prices plummeting to $1.01 within hours and market capitalization down to $7.02 billion.

Fast forward a few weeks, Pi Coin began to show signs of stability, but not without a fair percentage of wild fluctuations. As of March 12th, the price was $1.71, representing a drop of about 45% from the all-time high of $2.99 ​​on February 26th.

Nevertheless, the token's market capitalization has increased significantly, currently at $12.26 billion. This surge has pushed PICoin to become the 11th largest crypto by market capitalization. This is an impressive feat of a project that has recently become available for trade.

But that's not the only surprise. Over the past 24 hours, Pi Coin ignored the broader bear market and recorded a profit of 20%. This is the best of the top 100 cryptocurrencies. With trading volumes exceeding $500 million, it has become the most trending coin.

The rapid rise of the PI Network has brought together comparisons with past viral sensations like Safemoon, gaining traction through aggressive marketing and referral-driven hype. But is the Pi momentum sustainable or just another fleeting trend?

Let's dig deeper into what happened since the release of Pi Coin's mainnet and the release of the tokens, and how we climbed to become the 11th most valuable cryptocurrency.

Bold experiment or next crypto fallout?

The PI network was born from a simple yet ambitious vision. This is to make it accessible to anyone with a smartphone.

Founded by Stanford University alumni in 2019, Dr. Nicholas Coccaris and Dr. Chendiao Fan, Dr. Fan, have sought to remove barriers to traditional mining that demand expensive hardware and high energy consumption.

Instead of relying on work proofs like Bitcoin (BTC), Pi Network adopted a stellar consensus protocol, allowing users to mine coins with minimal energy use with just a tap of a button every day.

This low-effort model has facilitated rapid adoption and attracted millions through referral-based onboarding systems. This growth strategy overcharged user acquisition, but criticism was also portrayed for similarities to multi-level marketing schemes as users earned additional rewards to introduce new participants.

A few years in development, the PI Network finally opened its mainnet on February 20th, with its native token, Pi Coin, being transferred and marked for the first time to be traded in exchange.

This transition followed the extended testing phase, which began with the launch of the mainnet surrounded by December 2021, where KYC validation users were able to interact within the ecosystem, but external transactions were not available.

The shift to the open mainnet was a turning point, causing a wave of exchange lists. OKX has supported PI, opened deposits on February 12th and became the first major platform to begin spot trading on February 20th.

Other exchanges, including Biteg, Gate.io and Mexc, quickly followed, and Gate.io emerged as the dominant trading hub, processing more than $200 million in trading volumes in the last 24 hours.

Despite the rapid rise, PI coins remain absent in top-level exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Upbit, Kraken, and remain outside the largest liquidity pool.

Rumors have been circulating that if fuel is added to the speculation, Binance could list Pi Coin on March 14th. This is a date in line with both Pi Day and the sixth anniversary of the project.

Although no official confirmation has been made, the possibility is injecting new excitement into the market, and many believe that Binance List is a game changer for PI's liquidity and mainstream reliability.

Bybit CEO calls PI networks a scam

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

Bibit, one of the biggest crypto exchanges that recently became headlines in the headline that was recently victim of a $1.5 billion hack, revealed that it has nothing to do with PI.

According to Zhou, the operation of the PI network raised the red flag, particularly around data privacy and pension losses, and encouraged skepticism about the true nature of the project.

Zhou also made it clear that Bybit never requested that it list the PI, and that the claims suggesting it was not baseless.

The backlash from the PI community was immediate, but Zhou remained doubling in an interview with VNExpress on March 9th.

In his view, Memocoin works with full recognition of its speculative nature. Meanwhile, PI is said to have misled users with simple money promises through simple mining mechanisms that lack transparency.

Zhou pointed out that despite claims that Pi Network is supported by a team with Stanford Connections, he has never seen or heard these figures publicly in a way that validates the reliability of the project.

He also challenged Pi's leadership and instead of launching what he described as an unfounded attack on him and Bybit, he challenged him to provide transparency.

Beyond these concerns, Zhou also suggested that PI networks work in a manner similar to the Ponzi scheme.

He expressed doubt about the long-term viability of the project and emphasized how it has existed over the years, but failed to fulfill its important promise.

The PI network model promotes mining as a way to democratize, but Zhou argues that the project hasn't yet explained how its ecosystem generates sustainable value, leaving nothing to many users despite years of mining.

The PI Network responded with its own statement attempting to set the records straight. The team distanced themselves from Chinese police warnings and claimed they accidentally targeted bad actors using PI names rather than the PI network itself.

According to the PI team, this warning had nothing to do with the core team, but it was not accidentally related to bad actors because they used PI names to perform illicit activities.

They also rejected allegations of fraud and emphasized that the project has been systematically operated in order to build a legitimate ecosystem over the past six years.

They went on to deny their relationship with the social media accounts that attacked Zhou, and emphasized that neither the PI network nor its team had commented on Bybit or its leadership.

Lost token, delayed migration

The excitement surrounding the launch of Pi Coin's mainnet has quickly given way to frustration as the project is under intense scrutiny, by raising concerns about security and migration issues.

“Pi is a scam!!!” One user was furious on social media after seeing the PI balance disappear when unlocked. When Pi's loyal users (Pi's loyal users) lose their accumulated long-standing tokens, the frustration deepens as more pioneers adhere to it.

“One very sad thing happens to the naive pioneer,” another user wrote. “The moment their PI is unlocked, it moves straight to the scammer's address.”

Many victims had been unaware of fake PI-related websites in the past, but those old mistakes came back and plagued them as their tokens were finally available for transfer.

“The scam phishing sites are very well done,” one user noted, warning that the current setup makes it too easy for attackers to mimic the PI browser. “Even experienced people may fall into those fake sites.”

But frustration doesn't stop at security concerns. Also, many pioneers are ongoing struggles to move PIs to the mainnet by the UTC deadline of March 14th.

“I completed the mainnet checklist. I waited weeks to move,” one pioneer vented. “I tried everything to solve this issue. Pi didn't help anything. I need to fix this or extend the deadline.”

Blockchain developers called the PI network directly, calling the migration process “fraud and deceptive” and urged regulators to investigate.

He pointed out that blockchains like Solana (Sol) and Polygon (Pol) can handle thousands of transactions per second, but PI users are waiting for months (even years) just to run the token.

“We can't see their infrastructure. We don't know how the queue works. There's no decentralization. He said it's a core team that controls everything.”

Beyond technical issues, millions of users have handed over sensitive personal data, including passports and government IDs, and passed KYC.

“Their apps generate money from advertising,” the blockchain developer pointed out. “Is the PI network just using us for profit, pretending this is a real blockchain project?”

In addition to frustration, it also handles the situation of a PI network. The core team is largely quiet and makes occasional statements, but offers little in direct solutions.

PI advocates argue that these delays are part of a structured development, but critics argue that after six years of development, these excuses are thin.

With only a few days left until the immigration deadline, the situation has reached a boiling point. Some people request immediate revisions, others are seeking regulatory action, others reporting PI networks to authorities such as the SEC and FTC.

And despite the issues, there are people who still believe in the vision of the project and want their core team to turn things around.

But if the PI network is not moving fast to address these concerns – as users continue to lose tokens, migration issues persist and trust continues to erode – it may not be long before even the most loyal supporters start to leave.