Pi Network in Saudi Arabia: price, KYC and selling

If you have tapped the lightning button in the Pi app every day for years, you have two questions: what is it worth in riyals, and how do I turn it into money in my Al Rajhi account? The short answers: Pi trades on public exchanges at a price you can see in the converter above (the USD price times 3.75), and converting it takes four hops, mainnet wallet, exchange, USDT, SAR P2P, each of which has a catch. There is also a third thing you must understand before you spend a riyal: the difference between on-chain Pi and the "Pi IOU" that CEX.IO sells.

This page is written for Saudi Pioneers and for people who keep hearing about Pi from a cousin or a WhatsApp group. It uses only the Pi Core Team's own posts, exchange pages and CoinGecko ticker data, and it says plainly what nobody has verified, including how big the Saudi Pi community really is.

What Pi Network actually is

Pi Network is a project started in 2019 by a group of Stanford graduates. Its pitch was that anyone could "mine" a cryptocurrency from a phone by opening an app once a day and tapping a button. The tapping does not secure a blockchain the way Bitcoin mining does; it is closer to an attendance check that earns you an allocation of coins, boosted by the people you invite. The project claims tens of millions of app users worldwide. We cannot verify that number, and we cannot verify any figure for Saudi Arabia, so we will not quote one.

For most of its life the coins were not transferable. That changed on 20 February 2025, when Pi opened its mainnetMainnetThe live, real-value version of a blockchain, as opposed to a test network. Pi's Open Network lets coins move to external wallets and exchanges. to external connections, the "Open Network". From that day Pi could be deposited on exchanges and sold. Within 24 hours of the first listings on OKX, Bitget, MEXC and Gate the price fell by roughly half, and Bybit's chief executive publicly called the project a scam. Whatever you think of that verdict, it tells you how divided the industry is about Pi, and why so few of the big names list it.

Two things make Pi different from every other coin on our top coins list. First, you can only move your coins after the project itself clears your identity, which puts a central team between you and your balance. Second, exchanges disagree about what "Pi" they are offering: some trade real on-chain coins, one trades a promise.

KYC, migration and why the queue is still long

To move Pi off the app you must pass the project's KYCKYCKnow Your Customer: identity verification with an ID document and a selfie or liveness check. On Pi it is run by the Core Team, not by an exchange. and then "migrate" your balance to the mainnet wallet. Many Pioneers in the Gulf have been waiting for one of those steps for a long time, and the Core Team's own September 2026 update shows why. It reported that a duplicate-account check had caught some genuine accounts in a corner case, so KYC was reopened for more than 417,000 Pioneers; that a gas-fee problem with so-called fast-track wallets affected about 497,000 users and was being fixed; that the team was trialling palm-print liveness checks; and that the "tentative KYC" status, where you pass an initial check but the final confirmation is queued, still exists.

What that means for you in Riyadh or Jeddah: a pending status is usually not a rejection, there is no paid shortcut, and the only trustworthy source of your status is the Pi app and the Pi Browser. Aggregate figures for how many people have finished KYC vary wildly between exchange blogs (16 to 19 million in mid-2026) and are not confirmed by the project, so treat any precise number as a guess.

Where Pi actually trades

CoinGecko's ticker list for Pi, which we checked in October 2026, shows markets on OKX, Gate, Bitget, MEXC, Kraken and CEX.IO, plus smaller venues such as CoinW, LBank, XT and BTCC. It does not show Binance, Bybit or KuCoin. That matters in Saudi Arabia because Binance and Bybit are where the riyal P2PP2PPeer-to-peer: buying or selling directly with another user while the exchange holds the coins in escrow until the riyal payment is confirmed. markets live, so selling Pi always involves at least two platforms.

Always confirm on the exchange's own deposit page that it accepts Pi mainnet deposits before you send anything. Availability "depends on the user's region" on several of these platforms, and a listing can be paused.

The IOU explained, plainly

CEX.IO's Pi page says it in one sentence: Pi "is currently traded as an IOU, meaning it is a placeholder for future Pi Network tokens". An IOUIOULiterally 'I owe you': an exchange-internal credit that stands in for a coin. It follows the price, but you cannot withdraw it to the coin's own blockchain until the exchange converts it. is a credit inside the exchange. When you buy Pi IOU on CEX.IO, the platform records that it owes you that many Pi. You can sell the IOU back on CEX.IO at the going price, so you get the price movement, up or down. What you cannot do is withdraw it to your Pi mainnet wallet, send it to OKX, or deposit the Pi you mined into CEX.IO. CoinMarketCap tracks "Pi [IOU]" as a separate listing and warns that IOUs "may not be transferable across exchanges". CEX.IO publishes no timeline for converting IOUs into on-chain tokens.

So who is the IOU for? Someone who does not mine Pi, has a Saudi card, and wants exposure to the price without opening accounts on two Asian exchanges. Who is it not for? A Pioneer who wants to cash out mined coins: the IOU is a different product and cannot take your mainnet balance. We say this at the top of the page and on the button because the two get confused constantly in Arabic Telegram groups.

Pi price in SAR and how to read it

The converter below uses the CoinGecko rate for Pi in Saudi riyals, with a reference snapshot if the live call fails. Two reading tips. First, because the riyal has been pegged at 3.75 per US dollar since 1986, any SAR price is just the dollar price times 3.75; there is no separate "Saudi Pi market". Second, on-chain Pi and the CEX.IO IOU can trade at slightly different prices because they are different instruments on different venues; a gap of a few percent is normal, a gap of 50% would be a reason to look again.

What you will not see in any converter is the premium on the riyal leg. When you eventually sell USDT for riyals on P2P, buyers in Saudi Arabia pay slightly above 3.75, and when you buy USDT you pay a small premium too. Our USDT guide explains that spread; it is the real cost of getting from Pi to your bank, not the exchange trading fee.

How a Saudi Pioneer converts Pi to riyals

There is no "sell Pi for SAR" button anywhere. The route has four legs, and each one has a condition you must meet. Here is the whole thing with the honest caveats.

1. Finish KYC and migrate to mainnet

   In the Pi app, your KYC must show as passed (not tentative) and your transferable balance must have migrated to the Pi Wallet in the Pi Browser. Coins still shown as locked or unmigrated cannot be sent anywhere. Keep your 24-word passphrase offline; the Core Team never asks for it.

2. Open and verify an exchange that lists on-chain Pi

   OKX, Bitget, Gate or MEXC per CoinGecko tickers. Verify with your national ID or passport (Iqama acceptance varies by platform). Check the deposit page for Pi and copy both the address and the memo exactly; a missing memo can lose the deposit.

3. Send a test amount, then the rest

   From the Pi Wallet, send a small amount first and wait until it shows in the exchange balance. Then send the rest. Pi network fees are tiny, but exchange credit times vary.

4. Sell Pi for USDT

   Use the PI/USDT spot market. A market order fills immediately at the best available price; a limit order lets you set your price. Pi liquidity is thinner than Bitcoin's, so large orders move the price against you.

5. Move USDT to a SAR P2P market and sell

   Withdraw USDT on TRC-20 (cheapest) to Binance or Bybit, then sell on the SAR P2P tab to a verified buyer who pays by bank transfer, STC Pay or urpay. Release the USDT only after the riyals are visible in your own bank app, never on a screenshot.

The caveats, stated once. The route only works if the project has cleared your account; thousands of Pioneers are still waiting, and no exchange can help with that. Not every exchange accepts Saudi users for every function, and we only know that Saudi Arabia is absent from the restricted lists of OKX, Bitget, Gate and MEXC, not that every feature is enabled. The liquidityLiquidityHow easily you can buy or sell without moving the price. Thin liquidity means your own order pushes the price down as you sell. on Pi pairs is modest, so expect slippageSlippageThe gap between the price you expected and the price your order actually filled at. on anything but small orders. And on the final leg you are a seller in an unregulated P2P market: no exchange holds a Saudi licence, and SAMA-supervised banks do not offer crypto services, so follow the safety rules in our P2P guide and selling guide.

The Pi stablecoin post, as reported

On 8 October 2026 the Pi Core Team published a post about stablecoinsStablecoinA token designed to stay worth one dollar (or another currency). USDT and USDC are the ones Saudi traders use. on the Pi network, describing a partnership around a dollar stablecoin called OUSD. We mention it because Arabic groups turned it into "Pi will be a stablecoin" within hours, which is not what the post says. It describes stablecoins being made available in the Pi ecosystem; it gives no launch date, no exchange, and no mechanism that changes what your mined Pi is worth. Until something is live and documented on minepi.com, treat it as an announcement, not a product. Our USDT page covers the stablecoins you can actually use today.

Scams that target Pioneers in Saudi Arabia

Pi's mix of a long waiting list, an enthusiastic community and a confusing listing picture is perfect ground for fraud. The patterns below come up repeatedly in Arabic Telegram and WhatsApp groups; our scams guide covers the general ones.

• "Buy Pi at 314 USD" or the "GCV" price. A community slogan, not a market. Anyone offering to buy your Pi at hundreds of dollars wants your wallet access or an advance fee; anyone selling at that price is selling nothing.
• Fake Pi sales and OTC groups. "Sell your Pi for SAR, we pay by STC Pay" groups are unlicensed and unverifiable. Pi you send to a stranger's wallet is gone. If you must sell, use an exchange with escrow.
• KYC "agents". Nobody can fast-track Pi KYC for a fee. Accounts offering it ask for your passphrase or app login, which is the whole scam.
• Passphrase phishing. The 24-word passphraseSeed phraseThe 12 to 24 words that recreate your wallet. Anyone who has them owns your coins, permanently. is never requested by the Core Team, by an exchange, or by a "support" account. Apps impersonating the Pi Browser exist; install only from the official stores.
• Fake listing news. "Binance lists Pi tomorrow" has been circulating since the February 2025 vote. Check CoinGecko's ticker list or the exchange's own announcement page; the vote never led to a listing.
• Fixed-return "Pi investment" pools. Promised monthly returns on deposited Pi are both a Ponzi shape and, for Muslim investors, a riba shape. Nothing in crypto is guaranteed.

One last note on the community. You will read that Saudi Arabia or the Arab world has one of the largest Pi communities. It may be true, but no sourced figure exists, and the project publishes no country breakdown. We would rather tell you that than invent a number. What we can say is that Arabic searches for Pi's price and KYC are among the most common crypto queries we see, which is why this page exists.

If after all this you just want a small position in Pi's price with the card in your wallet, the IOU on CEX.IO is the simplest route, and the review explains the fees. If you are a Pioneer with migrated coins, follow the five steps above and keep every leg small until you have done it once.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and references

1. Pi Network — official site
2. Pi Network blog — KYC and Mainnet migration update (September 2026)
3. Pi Network blog — stablecoins on Pi (October 2026)
4. CEX.IO — Buy Pi (IOU) page
5. CoinGecko — Pi Network markets and tickers
6. CoinMarketCap — Pi [IOU] listing and transferability warning
7. Forklog — Pi token falls about 50% after first exchange listings
8. Saudi Central Bank — Standing Committee warning on virtual currencies (2018)

Related pages

• Top coinsThe 15 most available and popular coins in the Kingdom
• CEX.IO reviewCard and Apple Pay purchases since 2013
• OKX in KSASAR P2P and the Web3 wallet
• Bitget in KSASAR P2P and the Pi listing
• P2P tradingHow SAR P2P works and how to avoid scams
• ScamsCommon fraud patterns and how to stay safe