The price of the Pi Network token has likewise plummeted, falling nearly 80% from its peak in February. Its co-founders, Chengdiao Fan and Nicolas Kokkalis, are still paper billionaires despite the downturn.
While giants like Bitcoin are hitting new highs, recently soaring past $93,000, Pi hasn’t kept up. It seems stuck, even as the rest of the crypto world moves forward.
Yet, in the middle of this drop, something surprising stands out: the Pi Network’s two co-founders, Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan, are still billionaires, at least on paper. Thanks to their early allocation of Pi tokens, they hold massive amounts of digital wealth, despite the token’s falling price.
Pi Coin Market Cap Chart, Source: CoinMarketCap
Pi’s market value has shrunk from $19 billion to just $4.48 billion, and its potential maximum value (if all tokens were circulating) has collapsed from over $300 billion to $66 billion.
But during this decline, something unexpected jumps out: the Pi Network’s two founders, Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan, remain billionaires, at least on paper. Because they received Pi tokens early on, they have enormous stores of digital riches, even as the token’s price plunges.
The Pi Network Foundation also holds 10 billion tokens , worth more than $6.6 billion, which the founders may also control. Meanwhile, the community of “pioneers” has been allocated 65 billion tokens out of the total 100 billion.
However, most of these tokens are locked and cannot be sold immediately. According to data from PiScan, the network will slowly release the locked tokens over time, completing the process by May 2028. Around 131 million tokens are unlocked each month, which, at current prices, would be worth about $87 million.
This lock-up schedule means that while the founders appear extremely wealthy on paper, they won’t have full access to that wealth for several years.
In short, even though Pi Network’s token has struggled in the market, its founders remain among the wealthiest in crypto by token value. The true test will come over time, as tokens unlock and the market determines the lasting value of the Pi Network.
