Will it or won’t it – that’s been the only question that’s been plaguing the cryptocurrency world ever since the inception of the Pi coin.
Despite launching the much-awaited Open Mainnet in February 2025, the cryptocurrency had lost nearly 90% of its value by January 2026. After years of closed-network operations, the news of Pi finally allowing external trading had the token surging to a then-all-time high of nearly $3, but collapsing later on. By June 2026, the cryptocurrency’s price had stalled close to its all-time low, despite having some major bullish catalysts, including its pivot to AI (artificial intelligence) and a series of ongoing upgrades.
In the last week of August, smart contracts finally became visible within the ecosystem. This absolute fluctuation has its more-than-18 million users who’ve gone through the arduous KYC (Know Your Customer) process watching with bated breath – and the rest of the investors scratching their heads.
Traditional finance has a specific term for a bond that’s tumbled into junk territory after losing its investment-grade rating: it’s called a “fallen angel.” The term’s usually reserved for once-solid entities that are undone by their own mistakes. Lately, crypto investors seem to be using it when talking about the Pi network, and it’s not difficult to see why.
Despite now having a market capitalisation that’s just a fraction of its once-upon-a-time nearly $20 billion worth, there’s some testnet milestone, some listing news, some upgrade – basically some new development – that keeps the hope alive. So, what is the Pi Network: a fallen angel or still a potential dark horse?
King For A Day
February 20th, 2025, was a much-anticipated day when the Pi Network finally opened the doors of its Mainnet to external trading. Not only did the crypto briefly touch an all-time high of close to $3, but also trading volumes rose phenomenally to more than 1,700%, with years of pent-up mobile-mining anticipation transforming into what was a genuine buying frenzy. However, it didn’t last. Within a matter of a few hours, the value had slid down to $1, and since then the crypto has been in freefall. By March 2025, hardly
a month later, Pi was down a whopping 70% from its peak, crashing to a then-all-time low of $0.55 by April, another month later. While critics openly called it a “slow rug pull,” that eight-week pattern heralded what was in store for the Pi coin: a rally due to a genuinely interesting development, but an eventual slide that erases most of the gains.
Has Pi Always Been A Fallen Angel?
When the all-time lows keep changing, you know Pi is in trouble. After a nearly wiped-out market cap (from a peak of $20 billion to $1.3 billion), Pi is currently hovering around $0.09, up from its now-all-time low of $0.071 in July 2026. The reasons are structural issues, at the top of which is the fact that the coin’s supply keeps growing. Millions of coins are being unlocked every day, and around 10.9 billion tokens of its 100-billion maximum supply are already in circulation.
Inconsistent and thin demand against increasing supply is a textbook recipe for disaster. Secondly, the big exchanges are still missing from Pi’s roster, most notably Coinbase and Binance. This, despite a March 2026 Kraken listing, which has resulted in thin trading volumes. However, the real open wound is centralisation, as the Core Team still retains significant control even years after the Mainnet launch. Last but not least, the broader crypto market has had a rough year of its own, and that hasn’t helped the Pi network.
Sliver Of Hope
So, what’s kept the Pi network going and the crypto constantly in the news cycle? The fact that its team hasn’t stopped shipping. Since early 2025, crypto has steadily migrated its Stellar Consensus Protocol-based network through a string of upgrades, and despite there being some timing misses, the pace hasn’t stopped.
However, the biggest piece of news was the network activating its first smart contract on testnet in April 2026. Basically, it in-built a subscription-payment mechanism to avoid the pre-funding requirements of Ethereum’s account-abstraction standards. In fact, they were visible within the ecosystem by the last week of August 2026, with live smart-contract executions being tied to the in-built network booking app BNPi. This detail is critical as it signals that the cryptocurrency is inching toward genuine decentralised-application territory.
In fact, the next protocol on September 15th is all set to add flexible smart-contract authentication, all eyes are on Pi.
September 15th And Beyond That: All Eyes on Pi
Essentially, whether the Pi coin is a fallen angel or a dark horse might genuinely hinge on the two weeks leading up to September 15th. If the protocol lands on schedule and the smart-contract functionality makes it to Mainnet without glitches, it will give the network its first real, usage-driven narrative in more than a year. If it slips again, it’ll just add to its growing pile of misses.
The story of the Pi Network is more like a series of small disappointments, rather than a single dramatic fall. However, the community of “Pioneers” has been extremely loyal and shown remarkable staying power. This is an unusual place for a cryptocurrency to sit, as unlike other “fallen angels” of crypto, Pi is falling and building at the same time. Whether or not this story ends in triumph depends less on sentiment and more on whether the core team can finally hit a deadline.
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