Rug Pull Allegations Shock Pi Network: Core Team Wallet Transfers 12 Million PI While Prices Plummet?

Pi Network users have alleged acts of rug pulling against the project's creators following a recent bearish trend. In a post on X, one of the prominent members of the Pi Community, Dr. Picoin, stated that insiders had sold off millions of tokens. According to Dr. Picoin, the sell-off by insiders occurred after recent announcements regarding the upgrade and improvement of the Pi Network at Consensus 2025. He stated that the hype surrounding these announcements had driven the value of PI up, and the insiders took that opportunity to sell. He said: "The core team has sold tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of Pi at the peak — while the community was distracted by announcements and illusions of progress." Interestingly, users who accused of fraudulent behavior and panic selling pointed to blockchain data showing that a wallet allegedly controlled by the Pi Core Team transferred 12 million PI in the past 24 hours.

However, some other users have opposed the complaints, noting that there is no Pinnewszone carpet pull on X explaining that the wallet many believe is being sold is the distribution wallet that the Pi Core Team uses to move users' balances to the mainnet. They posted: "Don't be fooled by the fake information spreading on X. Coreteam doesn't sell pi. You are only influenced to sell off so they can buy at a lower price." While community members are debating what is happening, the Pi Core Team remains silent, causing fear of instability and doubts (FUD) to spread among users. The PI token lost more than 50% in a week as users awaited the mainnet. Meanwhile, most of the user concerns alleging rug pull seem to be related to the sharp fall in the price of PI this week. The token reached $1.60 on May 12 but started to sell off since then and is currently at $0.679, corresponding to a decrease of about 58%. Dr. Picoin has posted: "Don't ask me—ask the co-founders to explain: why did the price suddenly fall from $1.60 to $0.70 when in fact, the update from PCT should be seen as a positive development?" However, the fall is mainly due to the disappointing wait of most users expecting the network to transition to mainnet. A post from the official Pi Core Team account excited many last week when it revealed a major announcement. Most people are expecting this announcement to relate to the long-awaited mainnet launch, but it is the launch of the Pi Network Venture fund. The news about the $100 million fund for a project based on the Pi Network is not very impressive to most users.

Interestingly, the trading volume of PI has fallen by 34% to $328.54 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. The trading volume has also decreased since it peaked at $2.03 billion on May 13. This shows that holders sold the rumor, meaning they sold off the tokens while it was still increasing in price before the team announced the launch of the venture capital fund. Since the announcement on May 14, the trading volume has fallen below 1 billion dollars. Pi Network announces new upgrades at Consensus 2025 Meanwhile, Pi Network continues to develop even as users await the mainnet launch, with no estimated date yet. The founder of the network, Dr. Nicholas Kokkalis, revealed at Consensus that Pi Network has now closed its central node to allow for full decentralization of the network. He also stated that their node operating software now has a new version called Horizon, available for node operators to upgrade. Horizon is said to provide security, performance, and protocol. Interestingly, Kokkalis mentioned in his speech titled "Liberating Mainstream Adoption with Al + Blockchain Infrastructure" that Pi Network will integrate artificial intelligence. He called for AI companies to build AI applications on the network, while also adding that there is a plan to improve the technical infrastructure of Pi Network.