Staking PI does not receive rewards - The price of Pi Coin broke the psychological threshold of 0.5 USD

At the Pi2Day 2025 event, Pi Network officially announced two strategic updates: Pi App Studio and Ecosystem Directory Staking. While Pi App Studio received positive feedback for facilitating developers to build and deploy applications easier in the Pi ecosystem, the Ecosystem Directory Staking feature has sparked much debate within the Pioneers community, especially because it does not provide financial rewards for participants.

Stake PI without reward

The Ecosystem Directory Staking feature allows users to stake Pi Coin on the mainnet to enhance the ranking of applications within the ecosystem directory. This is a completely voluntary system, aimed at encouraging the community to support the applications they believe are valuable and deserving of more attention.

However, the biggest difference — and also the source of many misunderstandings — lies in the fact that staking does not come with a reward. This is something that confuses many Pioneers, as they are used to traditional staking models in the cryptocurrency market, where users often receive interest or additional tokens as a reward for locking up their assets.

Immediately after the feature was announced, the community quickly expressed confusion:

"Dear Pioneers! There is another misunderstanding about this new staking feature. You will not receive Pi rewards when staking to rank the app! Please read carefully, as always!".

The initial lack of transparency from the Pi Core Team further increased confusion. Although later, the Pi Blog updated and clarified that there is no staking reward, many believed that this point should have been communicated clearly from the beginning.

A Pioneers shares:

"If the notice about the lack of rewards had been emphasized from the beginning, the community would not have misunderstood like that."

So, what do users get from staking?

Although there are no Pi rewards according to the protocol mechanism, staking in the Pi ecosystem still opens up indirect opportunities for participants:

A community member explains specifically:

"When you stake 200 Pi for 60 days, after 60 days you will receive exactly 200 Pi back. No reward, no profit. Staking is to support the application you trust, not to make money."

Despite the controversy, some Pioneers still view staking as a mechanism to help the network develop more healthily by:

Theoretically, when supply decreases and demand increases, the price of Pi Coin could be pushed up. However, the current reality shows that the price of Pi is still under a lot of pressure.

Short-term price forecast for PI

Although the buying force has tried to create a significant bounce to the $0.67 area in recent sessions, this upward momentum was quickly extinguished as the selling side returned strongly, wiping out all gains. This is a clear signal that the bearish momentum is still prevailing.

Currently, the price of Pi is trading around the $0.5 mark – an important psychological level. If this support level is broken, the possibility of PI establishing a new low is entirely possible.

Source: TradingViewOn the technical chart, the next strong support level of Pi Coin is identified at $0.4. Although this price level seems quite far from the current one, if buying pressure continues to weaken and cannot protect the support level of $0.5, the possibility of revisiting the $0.4 zone is very likely.

Notably, this price range was previously tested on June 13, when the market reacted negatively to escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Source: TradingViewThe RSI indicator on the 4-hour chart shows a series of lower highs and lower lows — a typical characteristic of a downtrend. The RSI is currently still sliding down and has not shown any clear reversal signals.

If the RSI continues to drop below the 30 point mark (in the oversold zone), buyers may not return to the market in the next few days.

Source: TradingViewIn the context of Pi still searching for a clear position in the cryptocurrency market, every strategic decision — no matter how small — can become a crucial catalyst or a major barrier. The community is closely monitoring, and trust is an asset that the network cannot afford to lose.

Annie