Pi Coin: How and Where Can You Actually Get It?
Pi Network, famous for letting people “mine” its Pi Coin on their phones, pulled in a massive global crowd. Sources say it moved to its Open Mainnet phase around February 20, 2025. This switch should, in principle, make Pi Coin more widely tradable. Yet, for anyone hoping to buy, or even for the “Pioneers” who already have Pi, figuring out how to obtain or deal PI remains a confusing and ever-changing puzzle.
The burning question for many is still this: where can you realistically buy Pi Coin? It’s not as simple as grabbing Bitcoin or Ethereum, and anyone jumping into the Pi market needs to be exceptionally careful.
What Pi Says vs. What’s Happening: The Pi Coin Trading Puzzle
Back when Pi Network was in its “Enclosed Mainnet” (starting December 2021), the team in charge, the Pi Core Team, flat-out banned swapping Pi Coin for regular cash or other digital currencies. Their main push was to build the Pi ecosystem and get a huge number of users verified through Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
Now that the Open Mainnet is active, the technical roadblocks that stopped Pi from being listed on other exchanges are lower. This new phase means Pi can connect with other blockchains and, significantly, appear on cryptocurrency exchanges. But, getting Pi Network’s official blessing and an actual spot on well-known, major exchanges are still huge hurdles.
Current Ways to Get Pi Coin (But Be Warned):
- Listings on Some Centralized Exchanges (CEXs):
There’s talk that Pi Coin (PI) has started trading on a few centralized exchanges after its Open Mainnet kicked off. Names like OKX, Gate.io, Bitget, HTX (which used to be Huobi), BitMart, MEXC, and CoinEx have popped up in reports, suggesting they list Pi Coin or Pi IOU tokens. For example, CoinEx supposedly began offering PI for trade around March 18, 2025.
- A Word of Warning: Buyers should know that some of these listings might have first been for Pi IOUs (I Owe You). An IOU is like a placeholder, a promise from the exchange to give you real Pi Coins if and when they become fully transferable and Pi Network officially okays trading on that particular platform. Trading IOUs is a highly speculative bet because their value isn’t tied to actual Pi Coins you can hold, and everything hinges on the exchange’s ability to deliver on that promise. Anyone interested should confirm if they’re getting the real mainnet Pi Coin and whether they can actually deposit and withdraw mainnet Pi.
- The Situation on Big Exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, Kraken):
As of mid-May 2025, Pi Coin was nowhere to be found on major league exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, or Kraken.
- Binance: Even with a strong community push and polls backing a listing, Binance hasn’t added Pi Coin. Big exchanges like Binance usually look for regulatory clearness, openness about the coin’s mechanics (tokenomics), and how mature the project is.
- Coinbase: Coinbase also hasn’t listed Pi Coin, most likely because of questions around its legal status and how far the project has actually come.
- Kraken: Pi Coin isn’t on Kraken either.
The fact that these top platforms haven’t listed Pi Coin means it’s harder to trade (less liquidity), not as easy for people to get, and for some investors, it makes the coin seem less trustworthy.
- Unofficial Person-to-Person (P2P) Trades:
An unofficial P2P market for Pi Coin has been around for a bit, often popping up on social media sites like Telegram, Discord, Reddit, and in local community circles. In these setups, people directly work out deals and trade Pi Coins, sometimes for cash or other items and services.
- Proceed with Extreme Caution: This route is incredibly risky. The P2P market for Pi Coin has no rules and relies almost entirely on trust. Real dangers include:
- Scams and Deception: People have reported getting tricked by fake buyers or sellers who take the money or coins and then disappear. “Bait-and-switch” games and phony escrow services are common.
- No Protection for Buyers/Sellers: There are no official ways to settle disputes or protect investors, so if you get scammed, getting your funds back is practically impossible.
- Unstable Prices: Prices in these P2P deals are all over the map and can be easily manipulated.
- Breaking Pi Network’s Rules: Making unauthorized sales could go against Pi Network’s terms, and you might even risk losing your account.
Why Isn’t Pi Coin on Every Exchange? Major Obstacles:
Several big issues explain Pi Coin’s scarce appearance on major exchanges and the tricky business of getting it:
- Regulatory Heat and Rule-Following: The Pi Network project has drawn scrutiny from regulators in different parts of the world. Questions about how to classify it (is it a security?), if it meets anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC standards everywhere, and data privacy (especially with third-party KYC vendors) create serious roadblocks. Authorities in countries such as China and Vietnam have even warned about potential problems with Pi Network.
- Need for Openness and Clear Token Details: Top exchanges usually want projects to be completely open about their technology, development progress, and how their token works (like supply details or when team tokens can be sold). Some critics feel the Pi Core Team hasn’t been forthcoming enough on these points.
- Project Age and Developed Ecosystem: While the Open Mainnet is a big move, Pi Network’s system of decentralized apps (dApps) and actual real-world uses is still very young. Exchanges typically check how mature and useful a project is before listing it.
- KYC and Getting to the Mainnet: To officially trade or send Pi, users need to pass Pi Network’s KYC check and shift their mined Pi to the mainnet. Some users have apparently found this process tough, facing delays and tech glitches. The reported deadline to complete KYC and move to the mainnet to avoid losing most mined Pi was March 14, 2025.
- Wild Market Swings and Thin Trading: Early on, where Pi Coin was tradable, its price jumped and plunged dramatically, partly because early miners sold off their holdings. Getting a stable trading environment (liquidity) is key to getting listed on major exchanges.
A Look at Pi Coin’s Origins and How It Works:
Pi Network started on Pi Day (March 14), 2019, created by Stanford University graduates Dr. Nicolas Kokkalis and Dr. Chengdiao Fan. They wanted to build a cryptocurrency that anyone could mine on a smartphone without using huge amounts of power, employing a consensus method based on the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP).
The project’s official document (its whitepaper) states a maximum of 100 billion Pi coins. Of this, 80% is for the community (this includes mining rewards and funds for ecosystem growth), and 20% goes to the core team. The rewards for mining are set up to get smaller as the network gets bigger.
What Experts Think and Advice for Investors:
The Pi Network project gets mixed reactions: some are hopeful, others are very skeptical. Its huge user numbers (reportedly over 60 million) and new phone-based mining idea are seen as good points. However, worries about transparency, how centralized it is, the long time it’s taking to develop, and its actual usefulness haven’t gone away.
Financial regulators and crypto authorities worldwide have put out general warnings about digital assets that aren’t fully launched and unregistered tokens. They point out the risks of pure speculation, the absence of regulatory oversight, and the chance of fraud. The CEO of Bybit, for example, publicly called Pi Coin a “big scam,” although Pi Network denied this, saying such warnings were about impostors.
Final Thoughts: Be Very Careful
For investors asking where to purchase Pi Coin, the situation is slowly changing after the Open Mainnet reportedly went live. A handful of exchanges have listed PI or its IOU versions. Still, Pi Coin is not yet on the world’s biggest and best-known exchanges.
Getting Pi Coin, especially through unofficial P2P deals, comes with serious risks of scams and losing money. Even on exchanges that do list it, investors must be incredibly cautious, do their homework on the platform and exactly what’s being sold (real PI vs. an IOU), and stay aware of the project’s ongoing development, uncertain regulations, and volatile market. Pi Network’s path to becoming a widely accepted and easily traded cryptocurrency is still very much in progress, and taking it slow and smart is essential.
