Pi Coin Pops 8% Before Node Deadline—Buyers Have Until Tuesday to Outrun the Unlock Flood 🚀

Pi Coin ($PI) climbed 8% on Saturday to $0.0870, landing the token in second place on CoinGecko's trending board while most other coins in the ranking moved lower. The token's market capitalization sits near $957 million, placing it as the 67th largest cryptocurrency, with roughly $8.6 million in 24-hour trading volume, according to Pi Network market data. Over the past seven days, $PI has gained 7%, though it remains down 25% over the past month and about 79% below its level one year ago.

The deadline driving attention is August 11, the cutoff for node operators to install the latest network upgrade. Nodes are the computers that validate Pi transactions, and operators who miss the update will be cut off from the network. Phone-based Pi miners are not required to take action. The required version, Protocol v26, follows Protocol v25, which rolled out on July 22 and added the cryptography layer that privacy applications require. "Protocol 26 is a major milestone ahead of the final planned upgrade, Protocol 27. With 8 successful upgrades completed over the past few months, these final two upgrades will bring the network up to date with the latest protocol features, improvements, and functionality," the Pi team stated.

Traders have watched similar patterns play out before. $PI jumped 24% in the run-up to the July 22 upgrade and gave back the move once the day arrived; the June Protocol v24 mainnet upgrade followed the same arc. $PI also hit a record low of $0.0710 on July 14, and PiScan data cited last month showed roughly 1.71 billion $PI set to unlock over the coming year against daily volume still under $10 million. CoinGecko flagged $PONS, $PI, and $TAO among its top trending assets on August 1, 2026, and Protocol v27 is scheduled as the final planned network update.