The cryptocurrency PI, after surging over 100% from its all-time low, has declined nearly 50% from its recent peak. This drop continues despite the Pi Network Core Team announcing the successful migration of its Mainnet to protocol version 20.2, a foundational upgrade for future smart contract capabilities. The price initially rallied on news of a planned listing by the U.S. exchange Kraken before sharply reversing in what appeared to be a sell-the-news event.
The Pi Network Core Team confirmed the upgrade of all major nodes to protocol 20.2, which provides the foundation to enable smart contract capabilities. They stated the rollout of smart contracts will occur gradually, prioritizing categories that align with utility-based product innovation.
In a post on X, the team explained, “Protocol 20 provides the foundation to enable smart contract capabilities, and the rollout of smart contracts will occur gradually, prioritizing categories that align with utility-based product innovation and operations.” This followed earlier protocol upgrades in February and March.
PI’s price had rallied in late February and early March, receiving a major boost from Kraken‘s listing announcement. The token skyrocketed from around $0.20 to almost $0.30 ahead of the listing.
The subsequent price action turned into a sharp sell-off, with the token plunging toward the $0.20 support. The decline accelerated, with PI dumping to under $0.175 in the past 12 hours, marking a nearly 50% drop from its local peak.
Data from PiScan indicates the token unlock schedule for the remainder of March is relatively light compared to earlier periods. Aside from a release of nearly 16 million coins on March 20, daily unlocks will be below 4 million for the rest of the month.
