In its latest climb to another ugly pit, Pi Network (PI) is back today, 7.36% higher to $0.2157, as the mobile mining pioneer rides the ecosystem milestones wave in a turbulent crypto environment. Following its bottom of $0.1585 under three days ago, a staggering 20 per cent wipeout per week, the recovery has given PI its first shot of hope in more than 15 years, with 35 million members.

As the trading volume increased by 4.1 to reach a 24-hour high of $52.4 million, the market cap of the token is currently floating at $ 1.77 billion, recapturing some of the Q2 highs of around $ 1.65 billion.

With Bitcoin gaining some ground at about $91,200 after its fall yesterday and the entire crypto market capital approaching the much-needed 3-trillion mark, the outperformance of Pi could indicate the beginning of the rounds of criticism of the notorious grassroots favourite, having long been seen as a so-called ghost chain but now buzzing with practical utility.

The rally marks the end of a vicious correction prompted by a broader market panic, including U.S. trade tensions with China and profit-taking after the altcoin rotations shifted towards Layer-1 giants like Solana.

However, blockchain statistics offer an optimistic outlook: more than 210 blockchain applications (DApps) are operational on the Pi testnet, with 21,000 more under development. This indicates developer enthusiasm amid price fluctuations.

Circulating supply is 8.3 billion PI, and staking is 45% with an APY of 6.8% – it is enough to deter additional dumps, since the whales are hoarding 1.2% of tokens since the 10th of October.

Hackathon Final: 160K PI is the Prize Pool, which Heats the DeFi Innovation Frenzy

The spark for today’s uptick? The final part of the Pi Hackathon, which ends tomorrow, October 15, follows two months of a sprint during which thousands of submissions were made. Introduced in August, the event – which was based on the theme of Utility for the Masses – has given birth to game-changing prototypes, such as DEX interfaces and AMM liquidity pools connected to the wallet app of Pi.

Today, organisers revealed eight winning teams, which will divide a 160,000 PI prize pool (about 34,000 dollars today) among themselves, with the highest prize being a cross-chain bridge that supports PI swaps of Ethereum with USDT seamlessly.

It is not code, this is the blueprint of the DeFi explosion being unfolded by Pi, one of its core members said, with how the AMMs, such as the “PiSwap”, worked 10,000 simulated trades per minute at fees of less than 0.001 – faster than Avalanche and without the power consumption.

The wave of the hackathon is already felt: the number of testnet users increased by 35 per cent last week, and the number of daily active users reached 2.1 million, compared to 1.8 million in September. The buzz in the community about X is electric, and Pioneers are celebrating the event as the catalyst to mainnet magic and may onboard 10 million more miners by year-end with the help of gamified apps.

In addition to the prizes, the hackathon highlights the fact that Pi has shifted its mining gimmick to a full-fledged ecosystem. Such integrations as fiat on-ramps by Banxa, which were launched in late September, now accept 15 currencies, reducing KYC barriers and accelerating wallet activation – a change that eliminated the previous 30-day mining lock, increasing the rate of new user retention by 28%.

V23 Protocol Upgrade Looms: Scalability Boost to Turbocharge Adoption

The imminent upgrade to the V23 protocol, expected at the end of Q4 2025 or early 2026, is an addition of rocket fuel on top of the network guts, which is expected to provide a quantum leap.

Beta information was released by engineers, with claims of 50x improved finality on transaction (as low as 3 seconds), sharded consensus (5,000 TPS) and improved privacy through zk-SNARKs – without compromising battery-friendly mobile mining on Pi.

It is called V23, but is in fact the Ethereum 2.0 of Pi, analysts joking that it may reduce the centralisation risk by half, and that institutional devs making compliant and low-barrier blockchains will develop an interest in V23.

Initial devnet testing indicates a zero downtime of 72 hours, a much better result than Pi during the teething phase of the testnet. Combined with the direct rollout of October 1 DEX/AMM – enabling token swaps and liquidity farming – V23 makes Pi a competitor in DeFi, particularly in new markets where the majority of its users are located (60%).

Whale wallets, which own 25 per cent of the supply, contributed 450 million PI during the dip, according to Arkham data, betting on post-upgrade listings in any one of the big ones, such as Binance (rumours swirl following a denied-then-retraction statement last month).

PI chart-wise, it is flashing a reversal. It cut a hammer candle last night following the capitulation at $0.1585, and RSI is recovering its oversold position of 27 to 45 today. The symmetrical triangle disintegration on the 0.25 level is testing the 0.22 support, but a close over 0.23 may open a 25 per cent leg into 0.28, replicating the May breakout.

Fibonacci levels look at the next level of resistance of $0.32, with October models of CoinDCX predicting between $0.45 and $0.47 next up in case of a bull scenario, and further as low as $0.30 in case of a bear scenario on V23 delays.

Market Background: Pi Grassroots Grit in Altcoin Carnage

Pi has a pop when the memecoins market is flooded, with PEPE dropping 10% and even Cardano down 4% due to trade war nerves. China threatens to fight to the end on U.S. tariffs, and trade war anxiety spreads through all risk assets.

However, the mobile-first spirit of Pi comes through as 70 per cent of its transactions are now through app wallets, and it is beating its desktop-intensive competitors. According to Forbes, Pi has helped to democratize crypto, and its no-hardware-mining system attracted 1.2 million daily miners, most of whom were in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The metrics in the ecosystem are screaming of growth: TVL in Pi DApps has surpassed 150M last week, 40% QoQ, driven by yield farms where PI-USDT pairs are earning users 12% APY.

The cross-border remittances partnerships, such as the teased Stellar tie-up, have the potential of unlocking a volume of 500 million dollars by 2026, according to the analysts. Nonetheless, there are still sceptics – there is no official date of mainnet launch, unregistered securities rumours continue to circulate in the SEC, but today the tide turns.

Risks? A wider retest would involve retesting $0.18 in case Bitcoin rises to $90, and the token unlocks (139 million PI this month), putting a strain on supply. However, of the 75% that are in HODL mode per Reserve Risk, conviction is strong.

Crystal Ball: PI Will Sell Sprint to the Utility in 2026?

With Q4 heating, Pi stars are aligned: November deployment, December V23 beta, and selling whispers would likely jump PI to 0.55 at the end of the year, according to the $0.26 max prognosis by CoinGape. Bullish models project 1.74 in 2025 and highs of 2-3 in case DeFi TVL reaches 1 billion. To the believer, Pi is no hype; the chain of people available, bold, and opening their eyes.

Today’s 7% roar? It’s the Pioneers’ battle cry. The Darwinian economics of crypto make Pi have an advantage, with his survival being the most community-oriented.

October 14, 2025 – Tether (USDT) is stamping its foot upon the neck of stablecoins in the modern day, and for the first time in its history, having a circulating supply of over 180 billion tokens, it has a valuation of over $180 billion market cap.

USDT maintains a firm price of 1.00 after experiencing a 0.03% appreciation in the past 24 hours. It was not affected by the recent tremors in the crypto market, where Bitcoin fell below 91,500, and the entire market cap declined by 1.5 to 2.98 trillion.

As the trading volume soars with a 15 per cent increase since yesterday to $226 billion – a 65 per cent increase in Tether-powered trading, the latter is driving 65 per cent of all crypto transactions, remittances, and cross-border transfers in an increasingly volatile market.

This was followed by the Ethereum regaining the title of the biggest blockchain home of the USDT, with an 80 billion supply dominating over the Tron with its 65 billion supply.

The move indicates a new direction of traders who have shifted to the new scaled Ethereum after dencun with Layer-2 bases and Arbitrum cutting down execution fees to under 0.01, thus USDT swaps were quicker and more affordable than ever.

Tether Stability. As on-chain activity indicates, 12 billion more new USDT mints have been made in the past week alone. Tether is attracting capital risk-averse to its offerings as altcoins such as Solana and Avalanche continue to experience corrections in the 5-10% range.

Ether Takeover in the USDT: A Breakthrough of DeFi Liquidity

Ethereum resurgence is not a coincidence. It is a positive indication that the USDT migration back to ETH is a good sign of a mature ecosystem after months of Tron supremacy, based on its cheapness in the emerging markets.

The presumed cause behind the flip, attributed by developers to the recent integration of Ethereum by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to open tokenised treasuries with a 5.2% APY on staked USDT, is this. This has boosted the DeFi projects such as Aave and Uniswap with the USDT liquidity pools currently holding $45 billion TVL, up 22 percentage points every month.

The most recent transparency report issued by Tether yesterday accounts for increased confidence: the reserves have reached up to 182.5 billion, of which 120 billion is in U.S. Treasuries, 35 billion is in cash equivalents, and 27.5 billion is in Bitcoin holdings, which is a diversification decision that has been generating the company 1.2 billion profits in the third quarter of 2025.

USDT, according to a DeFi analyst, is not only a stable but also a yield machine, with how the Tether omnichain USDT0 standard, which was introduced on 1 October, has enabled the transfer of 869 million across eight networks on a daily basis through LayerZero. Such interoperability is fracturing fragmentation, as users can use Solana-acquired USDT on Ethereum within 10 seconds at virtually no gas.

The trend is being shortened by the institutional inflows. The last filing by BlackRock disclosed the 3.2 billion of ETFs in the US dollar, which are supported with USDT under their management, and Onyx by JPMorgan added USDT to wholesale settlements last week, trading 450 million tokenised bonds.

USDT controls 80 per cent of P2P transactions in Asia, where remittances through Tether reached $18 billion in September, 4 times higher than Western Union. However, this Ethereum move has not come without controversy: The founder of Tron, Justin Sun, has expressed fear of centralised gas wars, although statistics indicate that the multi-chain liquidity of USDT today is located on 12 blockchains, suggesting that only one network will choke the supply.

Regulatory Tailwinds and Growth: Tether Bold Bet 2022 Wins

In the supply boom, Tether is tripling its global plans. Most recently, the launch of Benjamin Habbel, former Google executive and Limestone Capital veteran, as Chief Business Officer, is an indication of a technological overhaul, and it is considering AI-based compliance tools to stay ahead of regulation.

The ESRB warning on the risks of stablecoin by the EU last week? Tether responded by allocating a $100 million EU reserve, which makes USDT a compliant interface to MiCA regulations that will be in effect in January 2026.

Tether In the innovation front, Tether has a liquidity pool of USDT on BOB – a Bitcoin Layer-2 – worth $1 million that is attracting Web3 gamers, allowing them to make in-game purchases without using gas.

This ties into the upcoming [?] In late October, Tether is going to announce partnerships with stablecoins anchored in Bitcoin, potentially minting 5 billion more USDT before the end of the year. Whale actions highlight the hype: speeches containing more than 100 million USDT have added 2.1 billion tokens, according to Arkham Intelligence, as a security vessel against Tether: 0.55%.

Technically, the chart of USDT is a flatline masterpiece at $1.0008, with RSI at 50, it is neutral in the larger market fear. Analysts predict long-term pegging integrity until 2026, with pegging projections of 250 billion in circulation expected to see more inflows approved by ETFs on altcoins.

Risks? A federal investigation into compliance with sanctions initiated by the U.S. is still open in 2024. However, an investment of $775 million in Rumble by Tether and the leadership of its U.S. arm by Bo Hines indicate active lobbying.

Market Conditions: Altcoin Storms with USDT as the Anchor

The calmness of Tether stands in stark contrast to the anarchy in the rest of the world. With PEPE and Layer-1s vindicated by 12% profit, the $373 billion volume of USDT 24-hour, the largest since Bitcoin, demonstrates that it has been useful in hedging.

Today, in Japan, a revolutionary promo allows rewarding shoppers with USDT by visiting a store and posting to an SNS, the first fiat-to-stablecoin retail incentive and would potentially onboard millions to crypto.

Competitors of Stablecoin are falling all over: the supply of USDC is only 34 billion, which is much less than competitors, and new actors are seeking niches in privacy-conscious chains. However, this is not enough to stay ahead of Tether because of its first-mover advantage, the absence of transaction charges on its own platform, and effortless Omni Layer transfers.

According to Forbes, the market of the stablecoins has progressed to a steady $300 billion, and Tether holds 60 per cent of the market due to the U.S, EU, and Asian regulations that promote the use of stablecoins in international transactions.

Horizon: $200B Supply Sprint and Beyond by Horizon

In the future perspective, the trend of Tether is upward – or to be more exact, lateral at $1.00, as supply projections approach 200 billion in December with holiday remittances and DeFi booms.

In case Ethereum USDT lead holds, anticipate an increase of TVL by 50 billion dollars, which hypercharges returns and productivity. To investors, USDT is not a moonshot; it is the train that is holding the wild crypto ride.

In a sector of tools of fad, the silent rule of Tether, supported by ironclad pledges and insatiable growth, makes consistency the supreme alpha. The record of today is not a goal, but a stepping-stone towards the goal of tomorrow.