TL;DR

The team behind the controversial project published a curious hint last week about an upcoming announcement, which many speculated could be a PI listing on Binance. That wasnt the case. Instead, the team announced a $100 million initiative to invest in startups, but the native tokens price reacted with immediate price slumps after the recent hype-driven surge.

The Big Announcement

On May 8, the official X channel behind the project with over 4.3 million followers said a big ecosystem announcement was coming on May 14. Although it failed to provide any further details, the community started speculating with a few options, but a possible Binance listing was at the forefront since some members claimed that the exchange had experimented with backend PI deposits and withdrawals.

However, such a listing on the worlds largest crypto exchange would have to wait, as the actual statement revealed yesterday has nothing to do with any trading platforms. The team announced the launch of Pi Network Ventures, which is a $100 million initiative in PI and USD that will invest in startups and businesses that advance the utility and real-adoption of PI.

Pi Network Ventures has officially launched—a $100 million initiative, held in Pi and USD, to invest in startups and businesses that advance the utility and real-world adoption of Pi. Go to the Pi mining app home screen to learn more.

This strategic program intends to invest in… pic.twitter.com/XoRy7jQGcJ

The comments below the post were split, as usual, with some praising it as a huge for the entire PI ecosystem, while others criticized that it is just another announcement of what they plan to do, not what they have done or are doing.

PI Dumps

The hype after the initial post from last week brought spectacular price gains for the projects native token. It almost tripled within less than a week, going from $0.6 to over $1.7. However, this hype-driven rally came to a screeching halt at that point and has tumbled below $0.9 as of now.

This seems to be a classic buy the rumor, sell the news event, in which the assets price surges ahead of the actual announcement but slumps after it. PI is down by 28% in the past 24 hours and has shed 50% of its value since its local peak registered just a few days ago.

PI Token Price. Source: CoinGecko