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Despite a slight delay, the Core Team behind the controversial project finally announced the completion of the next major protocol upgrade and hinted at the migration to the next one.
At the same time, the ecosystem’s native token rebounded nicely after the painful crash from earlier this week.
V21 Is Here
The Core Team began highlighting the frequent protocol updates in late February, upon the successful migration to version 19.6. V 19.9 followed suit a few weeks later, while the highly anticipated v20.2, which laid out the foundations for smart contract capabilities, arrived by March 14 (known as PiDay).
Version 21 came in early April, and the team set a deadline of April 27 for the completion of the next one (version 22). Although they failed to announce its successful migration by that date, numerous accounts on X speculated that it had been done as their applications displayed it. Nevertheless, the team confirmed the speculations online on May 1, indicating, as always, that node operators must ensure their systems are up to date to continue operating on the blockchain.
Moreover, the post hinted at the next upgrade on the roadmap (v23) but didn’t provide a specific deadline for its completion.
Network Update: The Pi Mainnet has successfully upgraded to Protocol 22!
Node operators, please ensure your systems are up to date and stay tuned for instructions regarding the upcoming v23 upgrade.
— Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) May 1, 2026
PI Rebounds
The project’s native token went on an impressive run in the middle of the business week in a rather unexpected time when most of the crypto market remained sideways or even charted losses. Instead of joining them, PI rocketed from $0.17 to a monthly peak of $0.20 in the span of 48 hours or so, and some analysts speculated that this could be the start of a more profound rally.
However, it was painfully rejected there and driven south to just over $0.17 on Thursday. A popular analyst on X, though, reassured that PI has remained above the crucial 100-day MA, which acted as a support at the time, and predicted an instant rebound.
Such a recovery indeed transpired on Friday as the asset jumped by about 6% from its low and exceeded $0.18 once again. Its market cap is close to $1.9 billion once again as of press time, making it the 45th largest digital asset on CoinGecko.
