Pi Network (PI) price surged over 10% in the past 24 hours after 86 million PI tokens were withdrawn from crypto exchange OKX.

The surprise move sparked speculation of a looming supply crunch and reignited bullish sentiment among its supporters.

86 Million PI Coins Withdrawn From OKX Exchange

According to Pi Next Gen, a prominent community account on X, over 86 million PI tokens were “drained” from the OKX exchange within hours. This move reduced the exchange’s PI balance to just 21 million.

“This isn’t just a withdrawal, it’s a POWER MOVE by the Pi community…Scarcity is kicking in, and the market is feeling the heat,” the account wrote.

Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the report, the price of Pi Coin surged by 11%. Data on CoinGecko shows that PI Coin was trading for $0.8062 as of this writing.

The surge comes as the mass exodus of PI tokens from centralized exchange custody to self-custody wallets suggests holders do not wish to sell.

Investors interpret it as a potential precursor to a breakout, assuming that large holders may be privy to information not open to the public.

“Pioneers are draining the supply, and the price is about to explode,” Pi Next Gen added in a follow-up post.

Notably, the exact reasons behind the mass withdrawal remain unclear. However, the sentiment is that it is a coordinated action to reduce the available supply on exchanges and trigger a supply shock.

The strategy appears to be gaining traction, with PI Network featuring among the top trending coins on CoinGecko. Specifically, it ranks in daily search volume.

However, the sudden spike in attention and optimism contrasts sharply with lingering concerns about the project’s long-term fundamentals.

On the one hand, tens of millions of users have mined PI over the past several years. This means Pi Network has one of the largest mobile mining communities in crypto. Despite this, Pi Network continues to face uncertainty surrounding its listing on major platforms such as the Binance exchange.

Community members also allege that the token remains largely unrecognized by key price tracking platforms like CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. In their opinion, these platforms have yet to reflect their actual circulating supply.

“If CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko would only update the actual circulating supply… investors would really see the actual scarcity of Pi coin,” one user stated.

Questions about Pi Network’s mainnet launch also impede its path to legitimacy, use-case development, and tokenomics. BeInCrypto also reported that PI coin’s price has shown signs of decoupling from Bitcoin, a rare move in a market where altcoins often follow BTC’s macro trend.

Some see this decoupling as growing independent momentum. However, it also opens the PI token up to greater volatility, especially if concrete fundamentals do not back speculative moves.