Pi Network Drops 54% as Market Reacts to Disappointing Consensus 2025 Appearance and Unverified Dumping Allegations

Pi Network has experienced a dramatic price decline of 54% over the past week, marking the steepest weekly drop among the top 100 crypto assets.

Pi Network's price has dropped a staggering 54% over the past week, making it the worst performer among the top 100 crypto assets. The token experienced a remarkable surge from $0.78 on May 11 to reach a peak of $1.61 on May 12, showcasing an incredible 106% rally within just 24 hours.

This rapid move was fueled by anticipation for Pi Network's appearance at Consensus 2025 and hints at a major ecosystem update. However, the momentum took a dramatic turn. After the May 14-15 announcement of a $100 million ecosystem fund and a new governance structure, sentiment shifted dramatically. By May 18, the price dropped to $0.68, indicating a nearly 58% decline from the May 12 high. As of May 19, PI was trading around $0.71, showing a modest 4.4% recovery from recent lows.

Now, the token is consolidating under key resistance levels as analysts await a breakout. Pi Coin has seen a strong rally of over 45% from its May 17 low of $0.6595, but it's encountering resistance around the $0.75 mark. It has failed several times to break through the $0.752-$0.754 barrier.

A symmetrical triangle is forming on the 4-hour chart, showing tightening consolidation just below a descending trendline from the recent local high. This setup, along with the fact that Bollinger Bands are getting narrower and volume is decreasing, suggests an breakout is imminent.

The price is currently pivoting between the rising support at $0.71 and the resistance at $0.75. Analysts suggest that a decisive move could happen within the next 24 to 48 hours. A bullish breakout above $0.754 could send Pi Coin surging to $0.80 or even $0.90, but failure to hold above $0.707 might drag the price back to the $0.685-$0.673 support zone.

Short-term indicators are offering little direction. The RSI on the 30-minute chart stands at 47.8, slightly below the neutral 50 level, while the MACD histogram remains flat, suggesting the market is in a wait-and-see mode.

In early May, Pi Network completed the shutdown of its last remaining central node as part of the Horizon upgrade, which is being presented as a step toward decentralization. The team also announced plans to open-source its codebase, a request that community members have been making for years.

On the accessibility front, Pi partnered with Banxa to integrate fiat onramps into the app, enabling users to buy PI using traditional payment methods like credit cards, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. This service became available even before users completed the in-app KYC process.

The key announcement on May 14 was the launch of Pi Network Ventures, a $100 million investment fund to support ecosystem development. Along with this, the team introduced the concept of an “ownerless” Pi Foundation for long-term governance.

However, neither initiative came with a timeline for the launch of widely usable applications, which might disappoint users who have been mining Pi for years in anticipation of its real-world usage. Back in February, the core team suggested that over 100 decentralized applications would accompany the Open Network launch.

But to date, aside from experimental events like a Pi domain name auction or a small-scale shopping festival, the announced applications are limited and no large-scale projects have been launched yet.

Another factor that might disappoint the community is the appearance of Pi at the Consensus 2025 conference. During his keynote, founder Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis spoke about long-term visions involving artificial intelligence, digital identity, and decentralized finance, but he didn't provide a roadmap or any dates.

The past week has seen not only Pi Network's price fall sharply but also a breakdown in trust among its users. As the token's price slid, community sentiment on platforms like Discord and X took a critical turn.

On May 17, an X user known as Dr. Picoin posted screenshots of blockchain data, claiming that a core team-linked wallet moved 12 million PI tokens in an instance. The implication was that core contributors may have sold some of their large holdings at higher prices before giving time for the broader community to react.

The claims sparked concern among some, especially given the fact that the posted wallet address had been previously identified by some as a standard distribution wallet used to transition balances from testnet to mainnet in one of the last stages of the Horizon upgrade.

Some strong supporters of Pi argued that the allegations were based