For years, Pi Network captivated a global audience with a simple, alluring promise: turn your smartphone into a crypto mining rig and earn digital currency with a single daily tap.
The vision, pitched by Stanford-educated founders, was to build the world’s most inclusive peer-to-peer ecosystem, giving everyone a piece of the crypto pie.
Now, as we stand in the latter half of 2025, the network has finally transitioned to its Open Mainnet, a milestone that many “Pioneers” have awaited for years. The question on everyone’s mind is no longer “When will it launch?” but “Is the promise of millions being realized, and if so, for whom?”
The Big Event: Open Mainnet and Its Aftermath
On February 20, 2025, Pi Network officially removed the firewall that had isolated its blockchain, enabling external connectivity for the first time. The long-awaited launch was met with a flurry of activity, with over 10 million Pioneers having already migrated their tokens to the mainnet and over 19 million completing the mandatory KYC verification.
Initial price action was volatile, with the token (PI) opening at $1.47, peaking at $2.10, and correcting to around $1.01 by the end of the first day. Since then, the price has settled into a more modest range, currently hovering around the $0.35 to $0.40 mark. This is a far cry from the multi-hundred dollar valuations that some in the community had speculated, but it does represent a tangible, if still modest, market value.
Who’s Winning? The Core Team and the Early Adopters
While the average Pioneer might be looking at a small-scale return on their “free” mined coins, the real winners in this saga appear to be the project’s core team and the earliest adopters.
- The Core Team: Pi Network’s monetization strategy has always been a point of concern for skeptics. However, with the Open Mainnet launch, the team has a verified, engaged audience of millions. The app has served frequent ads for years, and a KYC-verified user base makes that audience even more valuable to advertisers. The team also holds a significant portion—20%—of the 100 billion token supply, a stake worth billions of dollars at the current market cap of around $3 billion.
- The First Movers: The referral-driven model of Pi Network, which rewards users for inviting others and building “Security Circles,” has been a persistent source of criticism, with some comparing it to a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme. Regardless of the label, this structure has disproportionately benefited those who joined early. These pioneers, with their massive networks and higher mining rates, are sitting on the largest stashes of PI and are the first to be able to sell their tokens on the open market.
The Unfulfilled Promise: Decentralization and Utility
For many, the promise of Pi Network was not just a free token but a truly decentralized, user-owned network. In 2025, this promise remains largely unfulfilled. Critics point to several key red flags:
- Centralized Control: A CNN report from early 2025 confirmed that all live Mainnet validators are centrally operated by the Pi Core Team. This centralization contradicts a core tenet of blockchain technology and gives the team immense control over the network’s future.
- Limited Utility: Despite the hackathons and developer initiatives, the real-world utility of the PI token remains limited. While the team is pushing for real-world applications, most transactions are still experimental or occur within a closed, community-led economy.
- Tokenomics Concerns: The massive total supply of 100 billion tokens has fueled criticism about its inflationary model. As more users complete KYC and migrate their tokens, the increasing circulating supply could put sustained downward pressure on the price.
The Verdict: A Cautious Reality Check
Pi Network’s journey to a functional Open Mainnet is, without a doubt, a significant achievement. It has amassed a truly global community and created a decentralized ecosystem that, at least in theory, allows for peer-to-peer transactions.
However, the reality of 2025 is a sobering one for the average Pioneer who dreamed of becoming a millionaire overnight. The promise of “free money” has translated into a modest speculative asset, and the project’s structure has ensured that the founders and early, network-building participants are the ones reaping the most significant rewards. For the millions who tapped a button on their phone for years, Pi Network may not have been a golden ticket to riches, but a lesson in the complex and often-unforgiving world of cryptocurrency.
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Coindoo.com does not endorse or recommend any specific investment strategy or cryptocurrency. Always conduct your own research and consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Source: https://coindoo.com/pi-network-promises-millions-but-whos-really-winning-in-2025/