Pi Network: 5 years in, Pi Coin exchange listing remains elusive

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Written on Mar 18, 2024

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Pi Network has turned five years this month.
The network is still in an enclosed mainnet as the KYC process continues.
Many pioneers have given up on the network amid the delay.

Pi Network turned five years last week as many pioneers continued to complain about the long delay for the mainnet launch. The anniversary happened as the developers continued carrying out the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, which has been ongoing for months.

Pi Network turned 5 years old this month

It also happened in the same week that the developers announced the test the pilot launch of the Pi Ad Network. This is an important part of the ecosystem that will help customers run adverts on the ecosystem assets like the Pi Browser and other applications in the ecosystem.

The ad network is a crucial part of the Pi Network ecosystem as it will help to create more utility for the Pi coin. Instead of using a third-party advertisement network, Pi Network will use its own tools and potentially save money.

Pi Browser is one of the biggest players in the ecosystem. Data shows that its Android application has been installed by more than 10 million users from around the world. Its IoS application is also used by millions of people.

Still, the concerns among most Pi pioneers is that the enclosed mainnet period has lasted for longer than expected. Pi Network moved to this enclosed mainnet in December 2021, meaning that it has lasted over 2 years.

Pi Coin launch is still delayed

The developers have noted that the Pi Coin mainnet launch may happen this year but only if three conditions are met. The first condition is that they need to KYC most pioneers. KYC is needed to ensure that all pioneers are real humans and not bots.

In a recent update, the developers said that they had already KYCd over 9.45 million pioneers, up from 8 million in December.

At the same time, over 4.64 million pioneers have moved to the mainnet migration and the number of mainnet-ready apps has jumped to 50.

The other condition for the Pi Network mainnet launch is that there needs to be enough applications in the network. I think 50 is a good enough number.

Also, the market conditions should be supportive. In other words, the crypto market needs to be in a bull run for this to happen. As I have written before, the developers have missed a big opportunity since the crypto industry has been in a bull run since January 2023.

In this run, most altcoins have jumped. Book of Meme (BOME), Bonk, Pepe, and other meme coins have become multi-billion dollar entities. This means that Pi Coin could have done well if the mainnet launch happened in this bull run.

Happy PI day. Please speed up the migration time and mainnet launch. Alot of pioneers are stucked in step 8. The bull run is on it will be a perfect time to launch and reward the early supporters. Like if you agree ! $GMRX
— Crypto Queen???? ???? (@queencryptooo) March 15, 2024

History suggests that cryptocurrencies will enter a winter period after halving. The last winter lasted from mid-2021 to January 2023. It was characterised by a major drop of all coins.

Therefore, if history repeats itself, there is a likelihood that the bull run is about to end, making it tough to launch the Pi Coin.

In this case, many pioneers will continue holding Pi Coins that have no utility in and outside of the ecosystem.

Keep in mind that Pi Network has been around for five years now and some people have been mining the tokens since then. Five years is a long time for the crypto industry.

For example, Bitcoin Dogs has raised over $13 million in less than a month while coins like Render, Fetch AI, and SingularityNET are valued at billions of dollars. All these tokens were launched just a few months or years ago. In one of my previous articles, I predicted that the Pi Network mainnet launch will not happen this year.