Here’s Why Pi Network Coin Price Remains Under Pressure Despite Upgrades

Key Insights

• Pi Network coin team releases a roadmap for the second quarter featuring its major protocol upgrades. Pi Testnet now has an RPC server.
• In the past 24 hours, the team released about 7.5 million PI into circulation, with the largest unlock of the month scheduled for April 9th.
• How upgrades and token unlocks could influence Pi Network coin’s price movement.

Pi Network (PI) coin growth has failed to live up to the hype it once generated at its mainnet launch, when the altcoin even reached a valuation of over $2. The team has, however, stayed the course on the project even as its valuation continues to sink or stagnate at different stages.

Speaking of development, the team has once again rolled out the roadmap for the second quarter (Q2) of 2026. Will the upgrades salvage the sinking price action, or will the PI Network coin remain under sell pressure in the near future?

Pi Network Coin Roadmap for Q2 2026

According to the Pi Core Team, the network testnet launched a new RPC server, opening the way for smart contracts to be simulated, tested, and deployed. This was a major step in venturing into the decentralized finance (DeFi) of PI in line with the major upgrades scheduled for Q2.

In line with that, more than 119,000 Pioneers completed a second migration of their transferable balances. This improved the network security.

Upcoming major network upgrades | Source: Pi Network/X

The Pi Network coin’s development, including the final node upgrade to v21.2, was scheduled for April 6. It aims to synchronize protocol improvements across all nodes. This will be followed by the completion of the v22.1 upgrade on April 22. The two address the transaction-handling capacity.

The final implementation of v23.0 on May 18 will cap the upgrade race for the second quarter. This upgrade would enhance the Pi Network coin’s functionality by unlocking smart contract capabilities.

Upon deployment as smart contracts, token trading volume on DEXs could surge, affecting prices.

Pi Network Coin Price Action: Altcoin Remains In a Tight Range

Meanwhile, the daily charts showed that the Pi Network coin had been ranging between $0.15 and $0.28 since late September 2025. The market structure indicates the altcoin has been under constant sell pressure since May 2025 despite major upgrades.

In mid-March, the price of PI spiked above $0.28 but was quickly rejected. The altcoin trades around $0.17, with red MACD bars suggesting selling momentum. This trend comes despite positive upgrades that could boost the token’s trading activity.

However, the Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) was reasonably green, at only $320K. This trend was indicated by a potential pause in selling, explaining why the MACD bars were fading in color.

Pi Network coin price action chart | Source: TradingView

Bulls need to defend $0.15 for PI to trade back toward $0.28 or higher. If bears return and force a move below the $0.15 support, the PI price decline could be magnified. Still, traders need to be wary of a similar breakdown between February 6th and 13th that turned out to be a fake-out. PI followed with a bullish rally to $0.30.

This raises the question: why is the altcoin still facing sell pressure despite a clear roadmap to enhance the Pi Network?

Sell Pressure From Upcoming PI Unlocks

Looking at Pi Network coin’s scheduled unlocks, it seems its ever-increasing daily supply is a hurdle to its valuation. In the past 24 hours, 7.5 million PI coins were unlocked, which was insignificant to the circulating 10 billion PI tokens.

Monthly Pi Network coin unlock chart | Source: PiScan

The largest unlock this month will be on April 9, releasing more than 18.16 million PI tokens. More tokens will be released this month, but the largest amounts will be released between the 7th and 15th. That explained why Pi Network coin was still under sell pressure despite network improvements.

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