The Pi Network Core Team has announced the launch of its first smart contract capability on the project's Testnet, a feature designed to enable subscription-based services for e-commerce, streaming, and online tools. This technical milestone, part of a series of protocol updates from versions 19.6 to the upcoming V22, is intended to foster "real, recurring, utility-driven use cases."
However, the announcement has been overshadowed by significant community discontent and a sharp decline in the value of the PI token. Despite the team's claims that hundreds of thousands of users have completed KYC and token migrations, many community members report persistent issues with the process, dominating the discussion around the news.
The PI token has been in a sustained downtrend, falling from nearly $0.30 to below $0.175 over the past four weeks. A brief recovery attempt was halted at $0.185, leading to a rejection that pushed the price to approximately $0.173. This decline endangers PI's position within the top 50 altcoins by market capitalization, which currently stands around $1.76 billion.
The broader market context adds pressure, with Bitcoin correcting from a local peak of $78,400 to near $75,000 amid geopolitical tensions, erasing roughly $100 billion from the total crypto market cap. Most major altcoins, including Ethereum and Solana, are also in the red.
