The zero-cost mining model continues to attract emerging markets The global user base of Pi Network has reached 48 million (data from the project party in 2025), with 62% of the new users coming from Southeast Asia and Africa. The average daily output per device is 0.11-0.15π (value fluctuation range 0.03-2.5), and the energy consumption is only 0.02 watts per hour (900 watts for Bitcoin), with the marginal cost approaching zero. The monthly growth rate of Philippine users peaked at 18% (GSMA Mobile Economy Report).
The social viral mechanism enhances stickiness: For every active member a user invites, the mining rate can be increased by 25% (up to a maximum of 5 people), forming an exponential growth model. According to Social Chain data, the median annual revenue of the middle level of the community pyramid (teams of 100-500 people) is $230, resulting in Brazilian users opening the app 6.8 times a day (more than Facebook’s 5.2 times) and an average dwell time of 14 minutes (monitored by the sensor tower).
Economic expectations stimulate ecological participation: Although the mainnet has not yet gone live, the testnet has already connected 120,000 merchants (with Vietnam accounting for 31%), and the median actual exchange value of 1π is 28 (error ±7). In Bangkok night Market, merchants accept π payment for mobile phone accessories. A single transaction takes 15 seconds, which is 92% lower than the traditional POS rate (cost 0.2% vs. Visa 2.4%). Chainalysis’s on-chain analysis shows that the monthly transaction volume of P2P has exceeded 12 million (peak in March 2025).
Technological iteration lowers the participation threshold: The 2025 white paper upgrades the “Federally Byzantine Protocol” (FBA) consensus, reducing node staking to 5π (approximately $140), and increasing the offline fault tolerance rate to 33% (originally 25%). The actual transaction confirmation time has been compressed from 3 minutes to 22 seconds (6 minutes for Ethereum L1), the network load capacity has increased to 500 TPS (250 TPS for Cardano during the same period), and the energy consumption remains at 0.03 watts per transaction (1/30,000 of that for Bitcoin).
Regulatory arbitrage space triggers speculation: The SEC’s litigation probability model in the United States shows that the penalty delay rate for projects not listed on exchanges is 78%, and the cost for users to circumvent KYC verification is 0 (compared to the 7 days required for Coinbase verification). The Central Bank of Malaysia’s 2025 report stated that it exceeded 409,800.
The global community operation strategy has taken effect: The #PiNetwork tutorial video on TikTok has been viewed over 7 billion times, and the creator incentive program has enabled a single influencer to earn $4,500 per month (with a conversion rate of 0.3%). However, a study by Harvard Business School reveals that 54% of new users joined due to “fear of missing out” (FOMO), while the actual circulating tokens only account for 0.8% of the total supply (81 billion π), and 99.2% are locked, resulting in a value assessment deviation rate of ±95%.
Overall, the growth of pi network users is attributed to the combined effect of the zero-cost benefit expectation (with a potential annualized return rate of 35%) and the low development threshold. However, the probability of the project’s mainnet being extended to 2027 is 65% (Finbold predicts), and the UK FCA has upgraded its risk rating to “extremely high”. Warning: 99% of users may face asset reset. Community self-governance voting data, however, shows that 85% of the participants are still willing to wait for at least three years, reflecting the sunk cost fallacy in behavioral economics (with a median investment of 180 hours per person).