(Dan Tri) - This is the Pi Network coin issued by exchanges in the form of debit a few years ago. The move to delist Pi (IOU) helps exchanges limit risks.

"When Pi Network officially opens the network, the previous Pi (IOU) coin will be delisted. The cooperative will convert the Pi (IOU) held by users into USDT. When the conversion process is complete, a notification will be sent to users," the HTX exchange said in an official announcement.

Besides Cooperative, a number of other cryptocurrency exchanges such as BitKan or CoinW also simultaneously announced the delisting of Pi (IOU). According to CoinMarketCap, Cooperative is currently the 15th largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Meanwhile, CoinW and BitKan ranked 29th and 201st, respectively.

IOU is the acronym for I Owe You. Previously, when the Pi Network was not officially operational, the above exchanges listed Pi in debit form and named it Pi (IOU).

It is not uncommon for exchanges to list a virtual currency (token) when it has not yet officially launched. In essence, this is a loan agreement, established for future transactions.

This allows users to trade on the exchange even if the virtual currency has not yet been released. After the official release, the exchange will pay users with the project's real tokens.

Mr. Quang Huy, a person with 6 years of experience participating in the cryptocurrency market, believes that it is completely understandable that exchanges simultaneously delist Pi (IOU).

"The exchanges are concerned that the real value of Pi will be much lower than the Pi coin (IOU). They may face great risks if they have to compensate users. Therefore, delisting Pi (IOU) is completely appropriate," Mr. Huy shared.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, Pi coin (IOU) has a total supply of 68 million units. Before being delisted from the Cooperative, Pi (IOU) was trading around 61.28 USD per token.

For comparison, the total supply of Pi Network is up to 100 billion tokens, many times higher than the Pi coin (IOU). Although there is no official price yet, the total supply is so high that many people predict the price of Pi will be many times lower. In the "black market", Pi is being traded at a consensus price of 1-2 USD.

According to the plan, Pi coin will be officially listed on exchanges at 3:00 p.m. on February 20 (Vietnam time). To date, the listing of Pi still causes a lot of controversy in the cryptocurrency community.

Experts say that the decision of some large exchanges to list Pi coin may be for advertising purposes, while attracting tens of millions of people in the Pi Network community to participate in the market.

In contrast to the above move, some other exchanges refused to list Pi Network for "ethical" reasons.