Pi Network activated Protocol v25 on July 22, marking its latest major upgrade of 2026, but PI failed to hold above $0.10 after a brief rally carried the token past that level.

The move resembled the market reaction to earlier Pi Network upgrades. Recent protocol releases have attracted trader attention before launch, but they have not produced a sustained price increase.

PI Fails to Hold $0.10 After July Rally

PI fell to an all-time low of $0.0705 on July 14. The token recovered over the following week and briefly reached an intraday high of $0.103 on July 19, but it was unable to maintain that level.

Buyers positioned ahead of the July 22 upgrade, giving the market a clear dated event to trade around. Both price and trading volume rose before the protocol release went live.

Since then, Pi coin has moved back toward $0.0918, remaining unable to reclaim the $0.10 mark it briefly touched.

Trading volume followed a similar pattern. Daily volume climbed to $33.7 million on July 20, then dropped to about $18.5 million on launch day and has remained lower since. Buyer interest faded after the event passed. That volume range places PI far below the most actively traded digital assets, where daily turnover often exceeds hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

Protocol v24 produced a comparable outcome in June. PI recorded modest gains before that upgrade, then resumed its downtrend.

Protocol v25 Adds Zero-Knowledge Components

Protocol v25 introduces BN254 cryptography and Poseidon hashing, components used in the development of modern zero-knowledge applications. These cryptographic primitives are widely used in privacy-preserving blockchain systems and scalability solutions such as ZK rollups, where they help enable verifiable computation without exposing underlying data. The Pi Core Team also released a redesigned mining app for its 60 million Pioneers, a user base built through Pi Network's mobile-first mining model that has been in development since 2019, according to the project’s official blog.

Pi Mainnet Blockchain has now been upgraded to Protocol 25. Also, the Clarity Act is ready to be passed; Trump has agreed to the ethics requirement in the updated draft which bans all federal officials including the President from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for profit pic.twitter.com/bfuIN4XBsG — Woody Lightyear 𝛑 (@WoodyLightyearx) July 22, 2026

https://x.com/WoodyLightyearx/status/2080023768714371508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The Clarity Act referenced in community discussion is part of a broader push in the U.S. Congress to establish clearer regulatory frameworks for digital assets, legislation that could shape operating conditions for projects like Pi Network depending on how tokens are classified.

The technical changes in Protocol v25 are significant, but the market response remained limited. The muted reaction reflects broader market conditions as well as PI’s own supply dynamics.

Exchange flow data showed little evidence of forced selling. Tracked exchange wallets recorded a net outflow of about 260,000 PI over 24 hours, a relatively small move compared with balances near 540 million PI.

The larger pressure is scheduled further ahead. According to PiScan, roughly 1.71 billion PI, valued at about $157 million, is set to unlock over the next 12 months. The heaviest single month is expected to be December 2027, at around 432 million PI.

That steady token release is meeting a thin market, limiting rallies despite upgrade-related news. The same supply overhang also weighed on previous protocol releases. Pi Network's mainnet remains in a controlled phase where most users cannot freely transfer tokens to external exchanges, which constrains liquidity and price discovery.

Development updates have continued to drive short-term moves, while scheduled unlocks remain a constraint on price advances. Whether Protocol v25 can turn added utility into sustained demand remains unresolved in the weeks following the launch.