Pi Network (PI) staged a strong recovery after falling to a low of $0.6156

Pi Network (PI) was trading at $1.7650 on March 16, up by almost 190% from its lowest level on February 20.

Pi Network (PI) price has staged a strong recovery after falling to a low of $0.6156 following its mainnet launch in February. The cryptocurrency is now up by almost 190% from the lows.

As of 1:43 (GMT+8) on March 16, Pi Network was trading at $1.7650. It has several catalysts that may push it higher in the coming months.

Mainnet resilience

To a large extent, Pi Network’s resilience after the mainnet launch has proven that it is not a scam, as many had feared. It fell to a low of $0.6156 on February 20 before recovering to trade above $1.5 at the time of writing.

Several reports in the past few months had warned that Pi Network was a scam due to its zero market cap on CoinMarketCap and the fact that it had no value despite having millions of users.

However, it appears that the cryptocurrency is slowly gaining recognition, especially in the wake of the increasing interest in cryptocurrencies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Earlier this year, several tier-1 exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), Upbit, Crypto.com, and Kraken, announced that they would be applying for a spot bitcoin ETF.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is also planning to apply for an ETF, with CEO Changpeng Zhao saying that the exchange is "working on it."

The size of Pi Network and the fact that it is a Made in USA coin, means that it may become a spot ETF candidate. Pi has a market cap of over $13 billion, making it a larger coin than others that have received ETF applications, such as Stellar (XLM), Litecoin (LTC), and Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR).

Initial data shows that Pi Network is also a highly popular coin, with daily volume exceeding $800 million. This suggests that an ETF based on it would likely attract strong investor interest.

Exchange listings

Further, Pi Network has already been listed by several large centralized exchanges, including OKX, Bitget, MEXC, and Gate.io. However, several tier-1 exchanges have yet to list it.

There is a possibility that Binance will list it following a poll in which most participants voted in favor.

These exchange listings would likely contribute to a higher Pi Network price in the future.

Token unlocks

However, a significant risk may hinder Pi coin’s price performance: token unlocks.

CoinMarketCap data shows that the maximum supply of Pi Network coins is 100 billion, compared to a circulating supply of 7 billion.

According to Pi explorer, millions of new tokens will be released into the network each month—188 million this month and 91.5 million in March. Over 1.4 billion new tokens will be released this year.

New token unlocks typically dilute existing holders by increasing supply.

Pi Network price analysis

The hourly chart shows that the Pi coin price has pulled back to $1.80 after reaching a high of $2 this week. It has moved below the lower boundary of the rising wedge pattern. A wedge is a highly bearish pattern characterized by two ascending and converging trendlines.

Pi has also formed a head and shoulders pattern. Therefore, it is likely to retreat and retest the key support at $1.533, its lowest level on March 2. A move above the right shoulder at $2 would invalidate the bearish outlook.