PI is among the top performers in the past 24 hours as most of the market has turned red.

The cryptocurrency market is back in the red after bitcoin’s rejection on Friday and a subsequent drop to a multi-week low, but, as usual, there are some exceptions.

Pi Network’s native token is among those, which might sound surprising given its recent calamity. Nevertheless, PI is up by 5% daily after an important reminder was issued by the team.

The Reminder

The Core Team announced on X that the blockchain has already begun the process of migrating to the next major protocol version, 26. As with previous similar statements, the post highlighted the importance of Pi Validators having to complete the upgrade by the deadline of August 11 to remain connected to the network.

Protocol version 26 will be among the biggest updates implemented by the team, and perhaps the most significant one since v20.2, which laid out the fundamentals for smart contract building. It’s designed to improve contract safety, state management, interoperability, and cryptographic capabilities.

Moreover, it comes before the final planned upgrade, protocol version 27, which is likely to be introduced in late August or September.

Reminder: the Pi Mainnet is upgrading to Protocol v26. All Mainnet node operators must complete the upgrade by August 11 to remain connected to the network.

Protocol v26 is a major milestone that improves contract safety, state management, interoperability, and cryptographic… pic.twitter.com/FXM5A8Tzo9

— Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) July 31, 2026

The Core Team set the August 11 deadline earlier this week, which essentially meant that protocol version 25 was successfully deployed, even though there was no official confirmation at the time.

PI Rockets

A very small percentage of all the Pi Network updates, product features, redesigned apps, or new developments announced by the team in the past month or so have had a positive impact on the native token. However, the version 26 deadline set from a few days ago and last night’s reminder might be the exception.

PI jumped after the team first announced the upcoming protocol version 26 and has done the same over the past 24 hours. It’s up by 5% daily and now sits at $0.086 after it challenged $0.088 hours ago. This comes despite the broader market’s weakness, led by BTC’s dip to $62,400.

Nevertheless, the broader picture around PI is still very painful. The asset remains down by over 97% since its all-time high from February last year. Its market cap is well below $1 billion, making it the 68th-largest asset by that metric.