Pi Network halts payment requests due to rising scam incidents

Pi Network has temporarily disabled wallet payment requests after a surge in scam incidents targeting users with large balances.

Summary

• Pi Network has temporarily disabled wallet payment requests after scammers exploited the feature to steal PI tokens.
• The scams relied on social engineering, not a protocol flaw, with attackers impersonating trusted contacts to trick users into approving transfers.
• PI token trades near $0.20, under pressure from low liquidity and ongoing token unlocks.

In a Dec. 30 post on X, the Pi Core Team warned users that scammers have been abusing the payment request feature to steal tokens. Because wallet balances are publicly visible on the Pi blockchain, attackers can identify accounts holding significant amounts of PI and send deceptive payment requests.

The tokens are instantly transferred to the con artist and cannot be retrieved once a user grants such a request. The team emphasized that this is a result of users approving transactions without verification rather than a protocol flaw.

To limit further losses, Pi Network (PI) has suspended payment requests while it evaluates additional safeguards. The pause is temporary, but the feature is currently disabled across the network.

How the scam works and why it escalated

According to community reports, scammers scan the public blockchain to locate wallets with high PI balances. They then send payment requests while impersonating trusted contacts, friends, family members, or even official Pi-related accounts.

Several coordinated attacks have been identified. One widely shared case shows a single scammer wallet receiving more than 838,000 PI in December 2025 alone. Cumulatively, users are estimated to have lost millions of tokens throughout the year.

Pi Network emphasized that users only lose funds if they approve these requests themselves. Still, the scale of the attacks prompted the team to intervene. Regardless of the sender’s identity, community moderators have advised users to reject all payment requests.

Broader context and market impact

The payment request pause follows a busy December for the Pi ecosystem. Earlier this month, the network integrated additional AI tools into its KYC process, cutting wait times by roughly half. Pi also revealed the winners of its inaugural Open Network hackathon, which received over 215 submissions.

Despite recent advancements, PI continues to encounter market challenges. The token’s price at the time of writing was $0.203, up 0.8% for the day but about 10% less than it was a month earlier. Compared with its all-time high of $2.99 in February, PI has lost about 93% of its value.

Sentiment is still affected by ongoing token unlocks. In December, about 105 million PI tokens were unlocked, increasing supply in a market with comparatively low liquidity. The daily trading volume has stayed low, averaging between $8 million and $30 million.

For now, analysts expect PI to remain range-bound between $0.15 and $0.25 unless network usage and investor confidence improve.