Famous rapper and fashion icon Kanye West (now known as Ye) announced on August 20, 2025 that Solana The official Meme token YZY was launched on the blockchain as an extension of its Yeezy brand.
As soon as the news was released, the token’s market value skyrocketed to $3 billion in just 40 minutes, but then quickly experienced a big dump of nearly 80%, leaving behind a wave of astonishment and controversy. The token, named YZY, not only reflects the huge influence of celebrity effect but also exposes the speculative nature and potential risks of the meme coin market.
Official announcement of the launch, the birth and big pump of the YZY token.
Kanye West announced a major news on Twitter on August 20, 2025, declaring "YEEZY MONEY IS HERE, A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN," along with a link to the official website. The accompanying image in his tweet revealed the contract information for the YZY token for the first time, instantly igniting market enthusiasm.
The YZY token is issued on the Solana blockchain, and the project team has adopted a unique anti-sniping mechanism: 25 contract addresses have been deployed, with only one randomly selected as the official contract address. This design reduces the probability of correctly identifying the contract address to 1/25, aiming to effectively resist attacks from sniping bots.
Roller coaster market, the drastic fluctuations and huge losses in market performance.
The market performance of Ye Meme Coin can be considered one of the most severe fluctuations in the cryptocurrency field in recent years.
According to the data, the YZY token experienced a big pump of 35,000% within 24 hours after its launch, with the price skyrocketing from a low point to over $3.1, before subsequently undergoing a big dump to its lows.
Its market value surged to 300 million dollars in just 10 minutes, but quickly fell back significantly. As of the time of writing, the trading price of YZY is approximately 0.6733 dollars, having fallen by over 40% in the past 24 hours, with trading volume also shrinking significantly by 85.92%.
This extreme volatility has created clear winners and losers. On-chain data shows that a small number of early investors made significant profits, while late-following retail investors suffered substantial losses. The top 500 wallet addresses made profits of up to $50.4 million, while retail investors accumulated losses of $21.4 million.
Token economics, highly centralized distribution structure
The economic model design of the YZY token highlights its highly centralized characteristics:
The total supply is 1 billion YZY tokens. Among them, 70% are controlled by Yeezy Investments LLC, and these tokens are released in phases, including a 3-month lock-up period followed by 24 months of release, a 6-month lock-up period followed by 24 months of release, and a 12-month lock-up period followed by 24 months of release.
Additionally, 20% is allocated to Public Supply, and 10% is used to provide liquidity. This highly centralized distribution structure means that the vast majority of the token supply is controlled by a single entity, raising concerns within the community about fairness and potential manipulation risks.
Vision planning, the ecosystem concept of YZY MONEY
Although the YZY token is positioned as a meme coin, Kanye West has planned a grander ecosystem vision for it—YZY MONEY.
According to the official website, YE PAY will serve as a cryptocurrency payment processor, accepting credit card and cryptocurrency payments, aiming to offer a fee that is 3.5% lower than the industry standard to compete with existing fintech platforms.
The YZY CARD is a non-custodial crypto debit card that allows users to directly use tokens such as YZY and USDC for global consumption without the need to convert to fiat currency. The official concept of YZY MONEY has also been proposed, aiming to build a financial system based on Solana, providing token trading and a structured locking mechanism to regulate supply and demand balance.
Controversies and risks, insider trading allegations and regulatory scrutiny
The launch of the YZY token is not without controversy. On-chain data analysis indicates that there may be insider trading activities:
Blockchain analysts have found that some wallets seem to have prepared funds in advance before the token officially launched. A key figure named Mikey Shelton boldly claimed in an Instagram story that he made $160,000 within 10 minutes of the opening, and his profits are approaching $300,000.
The analysis also found that the same group of wallets repeatedly appeared in the early trades of multiple celebrity tokens such as TRUMP, LIBRA, and YZY, forming a clear pattern of association. These findings have raised community concerns about whether the YZY token has become a typical case of insider manipulation.
Investment warning: Five signals to identify risks of celebrity tokens
Based on the YZY token event, the crypto community has summarized several key signals to identify the risks of celebrity tokens:
- Anonymous development team: YZY has not disclosed developer information, lacking transparency.
- Preloaded wallet: On-chain data shows a large amount of funds prepared before the launch, which may indicate an unfair start.
- Related party speculation: Core members excessively promote profits on social platforms, which may induce retail investors to take over.
- Liquidity Design: Low liquidity pools may amplify price volatility and increase manipulation risks.
- Historical association: There is a wallet association with previous problematic projects, which may repeat the same pattern.
The official website also clearly states that YZY is not an investment opportunity or security, reminding users to be cautious of speculative risks.
Future Outlook
As of August 25, 2025, the price of Ye Meme Coin (YZY) on the Gate exchange has fallen over 80% from its historical high, and trading volume has also significantly shrunk.
Whether its future value can recover largely depends on the implementation of practical application scenarios such as Yeezy product payments and the sustained effect of Kanye West’s personal influence. In the unregulated field of celebrity tokens, retail investors need to remain extremely cautious, or they may become the "exit liquidity" for insider traders.
