The Pi Network revealed this week that the $100 million venture capital fund to fund startups building on Pi is now active. However, the news failed to stabilize price action
At the Consensus 2025 event on Friday, Pi Network founder and CTO Dr. Nicholas Kokkalis delivered a keynote on leveraging AI and blockchain infrastructure to drive mainstream adoption. However, this failed to impress the Pi community, leading to a 19% plunge in the coin’s price within hours.
At the time of writing, Pi coin price now sits at $0.69, with a 24-hour trading volume of $572 million. This surge in volume is almost 45%, pointing towards panic selling as the market cap has gone down from 6.72 billion to $4.93 billion within 24 hours.
At the same time, the Pi Core Team announced the $100M Pi Network venture capital fund to invest in startups building on Pi in sectors like AI, fintech, marketplaces, and more is now active. The fund, backed by Pi Foundation reserves, will support early to late-stage startups to promote Pi adoption in the real world.
Investors expected the VC news to push Pi higher. But instead, the announcement created a “sell-the-news” moment. Some users speculate the Pi coin price crash reflects concerns about overvaluation, with a $69B FDV despite only 7.15B tokens in circulation.
However, the brutal short-term market response despite the fund trying to show long-term commitment from the core team had the community feeling betrayed. A popular voice, Dr Altcoin, sums up the sentiment highlighting the lack of DApps six years later.
After Wednesday’s announcement of the $100 million VC Fund, the Pioneer community alleged unwarranted delays in functioning DApps that the Pi Core team envisioned six years ago. In the popular voice of Dr Altcoin,
Today, the Pi Core Team’s announcement about Pi Network Ventures is nothing short of a betrayal to the Pioneer community, the very people who built this project from the ground up over the past six years. We waited, we believed, and we contributed under the promise that time was needed to develop a strong ecosystem with 100 real, functioning DApps. Now, after six long years, we are told that the DApps the Core Team envisions still do not exist.
What's Next for Pi Coin Holders?
Despite today’s drop, the Pi Network team remains optimistic. They claim the VC program will bring real-world adoption and usage, eventually leading to sustainable growth for the ecosystem.
But for now, sentiment remains fragile. The Pi coin price now sits at a key support level. If the broader crypto market fails to rebound, Pi could test lower zones. Still, long-term holders may view the $0.68 range as a potential entry point if confidence in the Pi ecosystem holds.
