Pi Network has announced the official release of its mainnet and the subsequent release of Pi coins to its early faithful supporters. That announcement set off a jaw-dropping spike in the digital asset’s price. On May 28, 2025, Pi coin surged 143%, reaching the $1.35 price ceiling. In fact, it even beat out popular cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash for market capitalization! This rapid price change and spike in trading volume has set the cryptocurrency community ablaze with speculation.

The release of mainnet is the biggest achievement yet for Pi Network. Working to democratize the cryptocurrency experience with mobile mining. This project hopes to bring cryptocurrency to the pockets of everyday users with smartphone-based mining. Needless to say, the project’s collaborative approach has attracted a huge and enthusiastic following. These recent advances stoked even more speculation and hype about what its potential could be.

Whale Activity and Market Dynamics

Perhaps the most significant event leading to Pi’s price explosion was a massive purchase of Pi tokens by an apparent whale wallet. This wallet received 70 million Pi coins from OKX. This acquisition boosted its total holdings of Pi to 155 million – the largest single holding on any exchange.

This is a large outflow of Pi from OKX. This is a sign that smart money has a very strong conviction on the cryptocurrency’s long-term outlook. Instead of selling to realize profits, these players seem to be in HODL mode, possibly expecting additional upside price movement. This recent activity has added to the already limited supply on exchanges.

Pi’s circulating supply took a big jump, adding around 5 billion, going from 7 billion to 12 billion. However, the circulating supply made available on centralized exchanges (CEXs) has not drastically changed despite this increase in circulating supply. This would imply that coins are newly being released directly into the trading market.

Token Release, Burning Mechanism, and Airdrop Strategy

The Pi Network ecosystem is getting ready for the distribution of 7.8 million Pi tokens to their holders. This release will put many new tokens into the circulating supply. The project intends to introduce a burning mechanism. The burning will start when Bitcoin price goes up by $25,000.

The goal behind burning Pi tokens is to lower the total supply of tokens in circulation. This cut is meant to make Pi deflationary — something that might be good for its price in the long run. This strategy is meant to encourage long-term holding and help the cryptocurrency’s price appreciation as adoption grows.

Pi Network has it in their plans to introduce a burning mechanism. On top of that, they will do a bitcoin airdrop for each $50k price increase, repeating this cycle until Bitcoin reaches $1 million. SoPi is airdrop strategy that benefits the Pi holders directly. Additionally, it allows anyone to join the network as the cryptocurrency market grows.

Speculation and Future Developments

Pi Network just tweeted an announcement of an announcement that was scheduled for May 14th. This puts us at the very beginning of Consensus 2025. This unusual timing has fueled speculation that the conference will bring news of major new collaborations and even big announcements of new tools or technologies.

To this day, rumors of possible listings on other exchanges, namely HTX and Binance, still echo through the community. If you weren’t aware that Pi is facing intense speculation, this rumor has helped fuel the hype and increased trading volume on Pi.

>Since hitting $1, and then breaking through the $1.35 mark, Pi’s price has taken its market cap above the $9.7 billion mark. This ranks Pi in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap. In the process, it has moved ahead of Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin on the list of market capitalizations. The network intends to distribute a greater number of tokens during the 30 day period. This could further influence its market dynamics.