Crypto Watchlist: Pi Network, Cetus, and Optimism Poised for Moves This Week

Market eyes three altcoins as volatility heats up—while TradFi bros still pretend they ’don’t get’ blockchain.

Pi Network: The mobile-mining project keeps teasing mainnet—will this be the week it finally delivers or delays again?

Cetus: This DeFi dark horse keeps adding liquidity pools. Watch for a breakout if BTC holds steady.

Optimism: Layer-2 season isn’t over yet. OP’s latest protocol upgrade could trigger fresh capital inflows.

Remember: In crypto, ’next week’ might mean Q3—but that’s still faster than Wall Street settlement times.

Pi Network 

Pi Network price will be in the spotlight this week as over 70 million more tokens worth $53 million are set to be unlocked. Most unlocks will happen on May 28, when 15.2 million coins will come online.

Pi Network, founded in 2019 by Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan, unlocks new tokens daily. Some 261 million coins set to be released in June and 1.57 billion in the next 12 months. Unlocks lower the price by increasing the number in circulation, especially when there is no demand.

The Pi coin price has been under pressure in the past few weeks, falling from a monthly high of $1.6692 to $0.7766. This crash accelerated after the developers launched Pi Network Ventures, which will invest $100 million in startups using the Pi coin. 

While an ecosystem fund is a positive move, the coin dropped because the announcement did not include a plan to get more tier-1 exchange listings. The developers did not address the centralization issues and the increased supply through token unlocks.

Pi Network has formed a bearish flag pattern on the eight-hour chart, pointing to more downside, potentially to this month’s low of $0.5545.

Cetus Protocol

Cetus, the biggest decentralized exchange on sui (SUI), made headlines last week when hackers drained tokens worth millions of dollars. The protocol managed to freeze $162 million worth of funds before the hackers moved them completely.

In a statement, Cetus hoped for a successful community vote to unlock the frozen $162 million worth of funds. SUI said that it was designing the on-chain vote, which will likely happen this week.

Thank you to the Cetus team for sharing your Q&A. We appreciate your dedication and commitment to quickly resolving this matter.
In support, we are working on the design of the upcoming onchain community vote and will share further details with the Sui community soon. https://t.co/1IiyIYq5XI

Cetus is also aiming to reach a whitehat settlement with the hackers. It has also offered a $5 million bountyto help identify the hackers and take legal action. 

CET, its native token, has been in a freefall, moving from a high of $0.2568 on May 22 to $0.1300, its lowest level since April 23.

Optimism

Optimism, a top layer-2 network, will be in the spotlight this week as it unlocks $23.4 million coins, accounting for 1.88% of the float. These unlocks are part of the regular monthly releases.

OP token has dropped from a high of $2.7715 in November last year to $0.7320 today. It has remained below the 50-day and 100-day moving averages. It also formed an ascending broadening wedge, a popular bearish reversal pattern. 

Maverick Protocol, dYdX, Celo, and Velas Finance are some of the other cryptocurrencies with large token unlocks this week.