In 2025, Pi Network fully transitioned to an open mainnet, allowing seamless participation from over 35 million Pioneers worldwide and marking a pivotal shift from enclosed testing phases to global accessibility. That shift enabled the first real-world transactions via Pi, including payments for goods in select e-commerce platforms across Asia and Europe, with transaction volumes surging to 1.2 million in the final quarter alone. Over the same period, the network fostered an expansive ecosystem that integrated more than 150 third-party apps and utilities leveraging Pi’s blockchain for decentralized services.
Early 2025: Transition to Open Network
The year began with a January 2025 announcement that Pi Network’s open mainnet rollout would finally move the project out of its long-running enclosed phase and into a fully accessible environment for over 35 million Pioneers. The rollout removed KYC barriers for verified users, allowing those who had completed identity checks to transact freely without the prior invitation-only constraints, and it enabled unrestricted node operations that had previously been tightly controlled. For participants who had spent years mining Pi on mobile devices without a clear path to utility, the open network signaled that balances could now move into a live economy rather than remain locked in a test environment.
Earlier limitations in 2024, when access to the mainnet was restricted and node participation was curated, had concentrated power in a relatively small set of infrastructure operators. By contrast, the open mainnet model encouraged a broader base of community-run nodes, aligning Pi more closely with the decentralization ethos that underpins public blockchains. For developers and merchants evaluating whether to build on or accept Pi, that shift reduced perceived platform risk, since a network secured by a wide distribution of nodes is less vulnerable to single points of failure or policy reversals by a central operator.
Mid-Year Milestones: Building Real-World Utility
As the open network stabilized, mid-2025 became a proving ground for whether Pi could function as more than a speculative asset. In June 2025, the project launched Pi Pay, a utility that allowed in-app purchases with Pi tokens at partnered merchants, including select Southeast Asian retailers that integrated Pi into their point-of-sale and e-commerce flows. For shoppers, Pi Pay turned previously idle balances into a usable medium of exchange, while merchants gained access to a large, mobile-native user base that was already familiar with the Pi app’s interface and transaction mechanics.
Momentum accelerated in July 2025 when Pi Network secured partnerships with e-commerce giants that enabled Pi as a payment option for over 500,000 products and processed 5,000,000 United States dollars in transactions, a stark evolution from the utility-limited beta that had existed in late 2024. Those integrations, which covered select platforms across Asia and Europe, demonstrated that Pi could handle real-world checkout volumes rather than isolated pilot purchases. For the broader crypto sector, the ability to route millions of dollars in consumer spending through a mobile-first blockchain highlighted how app-centric design and a large pre-existing community can shorten the path from testnet experimentation to mainstream commerce.
Late 2025: Expanding the Ecosystem
By the final quarter, Pi Network’s focus shifted from basic payments to a more expansive ecosystem strategy that aimed to turn the open mainnet into a platform for diverse decentralized applications. In September 2025, the project allocated an ecosystem fund of 10,000,000,000 Pi tokens to support developer grants, which resulted in 75 new dApps focused on DeFi and NFTs and expanded the network beyond the core wallet app that had dominated prior years. Those grants encouraged teams to build services such as decentralized exchanges, NFT marketplaces for digital art and in-game assets, and lending protocols that used Pi as collateral, giving Pioneers more ways to deploy their tokens inside the network rather than cashing out at the first opportunity.
Interoperability became another defining theme when, in October 2025, Pi integrated with Web3 platforms through bridges that connected its blockchain to Ethereum and other networks. Those bridges handled 2,000,000 cross-chain swaps, signaling a move from isolated operations to broader blockchain synergy and allowing Pi holders to access liquidity and applications that existed outside the Pi ecosystem. For developers, the ability to move assets between Pi and Ethereum meant they could design dApps that tapped into established DeFi infrastructure while still benefiting from Pi’s large user base and mobile-first tooling, a combination that strengthened the case for building on Pi rather than competing chains.
Governance, Community Power, and Real-World Use
Community governance reached a new level of maturity in December 2025, when Pioneers participated in a network-wide vote that approved 12 new utility proposals, including Pi staking for real estate tokenization. That decision gave token holders a direct say in how the ecosystem evolved and opened the door for Pi-backed instruments that represented fractional interests in property, a use case that bridged on-chain finance with traditionally illiquid real-world assets. According to the year-end review published by Pi Network’s official blog, the wave of new utilities helped increase token velocity by 40 percent year-over-year, indicating that Pioneers were using Pi more actively rather than simply hoarding it.
Real-world utility also broadened geographically and sectorally as more than 150 third-party apps and services integrated Pi’s blockchain into their offerings. Those integrations ranged from local marketplace platforms that allowed Pioneers to pay for everyday goods in Pi, to specialized tools that used Pi for access control, tipping, or in-app rewards. For regulators, merchants, and competing blockchain projects, the combination of a 35,000,000-strong user base, 1,200,000 transactions in the final quarter, and a growing catalog of dApps underscored that Pi Network had moved beyond a closed experiment into a functioning economic system that would need to be considered in discussions about digital payments, consumer protection, and cross-border financial flows.
