Pi crypto team faces backlash for vague road map in New Year message

The Pi Core Team said in a public note that 2025 was a defining year for the crypto with the launch of Open Network, allowing investors in Pi’s ecosystem to interact with the broader blockchain world.

Pi Network's value seen on a trading app. Photo by VnExpress/Duy Phong

This is a milestone achieved after more than six years of building Pi’s infrastructure and community, ensuring real utility was ready at launch, it said.

It also said 17.5 million Pioneer users have completed the personal identity verification process.

But there was little mention of the specific objectives for 2026 beyond a bland statement that "Pi Network in 2026 will be shaped by Pi’s long term strategies and planning."

While the project described developers and users as key stakeholders, it did not provide a clear roadmap or performance targets.

Crypto news platform CoinCentral quoted a social network user as commenting: "Years of hype, delays, vague timelines, and zero accountability have destroyed market confidence."

Another said: "Talking to the Pi team is like someone painting in the air! Useless!"

Some observers think by mid-year Pi could trade at around US$0.001 or lower, down from its current level of around $0.2.

Pi Network was launched in 2019 and promoted as a way for participants to obtain free cryptocurrency by opening a mobile app and "tapping the lightning bolt" to check in daily.

Yet Pi Network is still widely regarded as an incomplete blockchain project as it lacks smart contracts and has not open-sourced its code.

In recent years it has been seen as testing users’ patience with only incremental upgrades.

Pi Network's price. Photo by Crypto.com

Following the New Year message, the price of Pi Network fell from $0.205 to $0.19. According to news platform CryptoPotato, the price could continue to decline in the near term as the project is set to unlock an additional six million tokens in the coming days.

Last year the token briefly peaked at $3 per coin before quickly losing more than 90% of its value.

In late September and early October it repeatedly fell to record lows, reaching $0.14.

Minh Vuong, a crypto investor in HCMC with eight years of experience, said Pi users "are plunging into a high-risk game."

"The biggest risk for Pi Network comes from its extremely large total token supply, which could create massive future supply pressure, diluting value and pushing prices sharply lower."

Crypto data platform CoinPedia said the fact that most tokens are held by the development team and the way tokens are distributed to users have raised concerns that the team is deliberately prolonging timelines to retain users.

Pi has a total supply of 100 billion tokens, but only around 8.4 billion are currently in circulation.

CoinPedia also questioned recent moves such as fundraising efforts, the role of the Pi Foundation and whether "insiders" are quietly selling their own tokens. These suspicions have weighed heavily on the project’s credibility.

Last month seven Chinese financial associations issued a joint notice warning about cryptocurrency risks, in which they referred to Pi Network as a "valueless virtual asset."