TLDR:
- Market: The market launched by Kanye West on the Solana chain on August 21, 2025, hit a record market capitalization of $3.2 billion within one hour but corrected by over 85% to $0.66 on August 22, 2025, having a market capitalization of approximately $700 million and 24-hour volume trading of approximately $50 million.
- Narrative: With Emoh as the backbone in the YZY Money chain, the meteoric rise and fall of YZY has stirred outrage as on-chain statistics reveal insiders, led by Yeezy Investments LLC, controlling 70% of the supply and allegedly turning profits while retail investors incurred huge losses, providing substance to claims of pump-and-dump fraud.
On August 21, 2025, self-anointed maverick American rapper Ye stunned the cryptoverse by launching his YZY memecoin on Solana. YZY raised a whopping $3.2 billion—all the unlocked tokens, note, by full-diluted valuation (FDV), in less than an hour, taking the most over-the-top celebrity memecoins that took days to reach such peaks to task. Though the fame of the declining star of the West did not count, his star power witnessed an investment frenzy, propelling YZY to the top. The whirlwind was fleeting, however. The token saw a fall by over 85% in less than one day, down from the peak at $3.13 to the low at $0.66 at 03:10 PM on August 22nd, 2025, leaving the retail investors bemused.
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YZY was touted to be larger in size than a memecoin, as the foundation currency for the sizeable YZY Money ecosystem, encompassing YZY Money, YE Pay (an e-commerce payment processor for the web), and YE Card (with YZY and USDC support, a crypto debit card in the making). The buzz for the project, however, came tumbling down when gigantic sell-offs occurred, triggering an abrupt drop. On-chain data by Nansen looks bleak: Yeezy Investments LLC, the property of West, makes up 70% of the supply (approximately 870 million tokens), and it has vesting arrangements for 3, 6, and 12 months. To start with, the same controlled nearly 90% of the supply in its kitty, and despite subsequent public distribution being launched, it sold off approximately 3.3% in the initial 24 hours. With the public, along with the liquidity pools holding only 13.3% of the supply—10% in liquidity pools and 3.3% in the public’s kitty—the market was left open to exploits, and the crash in price despite the availability constraint remains a red flag.
Insiders seemed to reap the rewards handsomely. Lookonchain data indicate a wallet of West transferred 30 million YZY ($34 million) worth to a liquidity pool with prices ranging from $3.17 to $4.49. This arrangement enabled profit-taking as prices rose above $3.17, with the option to dump the entire shipment should prices hit $4.49. With YZY now down close to 5x from the top, however, there is minimal hope of recovery without manipulation. The group is convinced this was a coordinated effort, with adds to liquidity being a “buy left, sell right” strategy as opposed to natural user growth. Everyday investors, meanwhile, are left in the red, with thousands reporting between $500 and $100,000 in losses, following similar patterns from earlier celebrity token flops such as LIBRA and TRUMP.
Outrage on X is a cry of betrayal, with the users complaining about in-control tokenomics and finger-pointing at West as a fan-exploiter—an ironic reaction to his earlier scorn at the memecoins as “hype-driven scams.”
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