Pi Network (Pi) and Optimism (OP) could face a huge bearish test as they prepare to unlock new tokens into circulation. 
Cetus Protocol (CETUS) could also continue its downward trend as investors take a safer approach after hackers recently infiltrated the platform. 

This week could be a busy one for the altcoin market, as tokens that failed to make their mark in the recent rally could attempt to redeem themselves. However, others could maintain their bearish positions, with the likes of Pi Network (Pi), Cetus Protocol (CETUS), and Optimism (OP) demanding strict monitoring.

Pi Network (Pi)

Pi Network (Pi) is still struggling to reward late investors, declining by a whopping 50% in the last 90 days. In the short rally that sent most of the altcoins to a new high, Pi surged from $0.56 to its monthly high of $1.6. However, the asset quickly took a nosedive to trade below $1. At press time, Pi was trading at $0.77 after surging by 1.7% in the last 24 hours.

As highlighted in our previous blog post, the momentum of Pi has recently been subdued by the frequent token releases, with 15.2 million expected to be unlocked on May 28. Already, 70 million Pi ($53 million) has been released into circulation in just a week. About 261 million will also be unlocked in June, with an additional 1.57 billion Pi expected to be unlocked in the next 12 months.

Source: PiScan

With this happening, Pi is forming a bearish flag pattern on its eight-hour chart. A validation of this setup could see the asset falling back to $0.5545. Apart from the token unlock exercise, the price could also be severely affected by a whale wallet that has been offloading the asset in the past few weeks, as indicated in our recent blog post.

Optimism (OP)

The price reaction of the OP token may not be any different from that of Pi, as $23.4 million, representing 1.88% of the supply, is set to be unlocked into circulation this week. The price is already 57% down from its year-to-date high of $2.7 while struggling to overturn the 20.9% loss printed on its 90-day price chart.

Currently, OP is trading at $0.77 and still remains below the 50-day and 100-day moving averages. It is also forming a popular bearish reversal pattern called an ascending broadening wedge, hinting that the price could drop further to $0.65 and subsequently to $0.60. Meanwhile, WisdomTree’s decision to unlock access to 13 tokenized funds across Optimism and others, as reviewed in our earlier discussion, could help mitigate the loss.

Cetus Protocol (CETUS)

Cetus is having some difficult times in the market, declining by 7% in the 24 hours and 29% in the last seven days. At the current price of $0.31, CETUS is trading below its monthly high of $0.25. Interestingly, the price outlook is still looking blurry.

Its recent performance is largely due to a lack of investors’ confidence after losing millions of users’ money to hackers. As detailed in our previous news brief, $162 million worth of the funds were successfully frozen.

According to the report, $63 million of the stolen funds were bridged to the Ethereum network, making it difficult to recover. For now, the team is seeking to conduct a voting exercise to unlock the frozen $162 million.

---

Filed under: Bitcoin - @ May 26, 2025 10:09 am