- The YZY token, launched by Kanye West (now legally Ye), experienced extreme volatility on the Solana blockchain, surging to a $3 billion market cap within 40 minutes before crashing.
- The collapse was followed by widespread allegations of insider manipulation, with on-chain data showing that insiders controlled as much as 94% of the token’s initial supply.
- The launch has been compared to other volatile celebrity memecoin projects, with some traders like BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes publicly engaging with the token despite its clear risks and a warning from CoinGecko.
And yet another story of a celebrity memecoin being hyped up, launched, and then completely collapsing almost overnight — though this fell off in a matter of minutes.
This time our protagonist is Kanye West (now legally Ye), and his YZY token, which exploded on the Solana (SOL) blockchain after surging to a US$3B (AU$4.67B) market cap within 40 minutes before plunging back to about US$1B (AU$1.54).
Just by visiting the coin page in CoinGecko, you get this warning:
The collapse followed mounting allegations of insider manipulation, casting doubt on what West called “A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN.”
“According to Rugcheck.xyz, the contract creator can make changes to the token contract such as contract metadata, disabling sells, changing fees, unrestrictive minting of more tokens, transferring tokens etc. Exercise caution”
Related: Fortune: Scaramucci’s SkyBridge to Tokenise $300M in Assets on Avalanche
Here We Go Again
West announced the launch on X, posting the contract address and a link to the Yeezy Money site. The project describes itself as a crypto-powered financial system, with YZY positioned as its native currency. In fine print, the site warned of “potential for complete loss” and noted restrictions for certain jurisdictions.
The rollout mirrored the volatility of other celebrity memecoins, with on-chain data quickly drawing scrutiny. Coinbase director Conor Grogan flagged that insiders initially controlled 94% of supply, with one multisig wallet holding 87% before redistribution. Analytics firm Lookonchain said liquidity was structured in a way that allowed developers to offload tokens at will.
Trading chaos followed. One insider allegedly bought the wrong contract, losing US$710,000 (AU$1.1M) before making it back. Another user netted US$3.4M (AU$5.3M) by paying US$24,000 (AU$37,352) in Solana fees to front-run transactions. A separate wallet reportedly banked US$6M (AU$9.3M) when YZY peaked.
The launch used 25 separate contract deployments, with one selected as official, an apparent attempt to fend off automated snipers. Still, observers saw heavy insider presence dominating early allocations.
Despite the warnings, many traders are piling in, including James Wynn, who called YZY a short-term bet. Similarly, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes also appeared among buyers “cause bull market” that’s why.
The YZY token is another high-profile celebrity experiment leveraging massive amounts of influence and reach. Nothing new here, but with insiders holding most of the supply and speculative traders treating it as a quick flip, Yeezy’s so-called “new economy” is already casting a lot of doubt.
Related: 26% of Singaporeans Hold Crypto as Volkswagen Embraces Bitcoin Payments for Cars
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