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Deng Tong, Bitchain Vision
On August 21, 2025, Kanye West announced the issuance of coins on X, “YEEZY tokens are here, a new economy based on blockchain”, and attached the official website address.BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes also paid attention to the YZY project, calling on Kanye West not to “rug” and expressed optimism about YZY’s performance in the bull market.
What is YZY project?What are the current controversies?How do you view the phenomenon of celebrities issuing coins?
1. Detailed YZY project
The token released by Kanye West is called YZY, which is interpreted by the official website as “YZY is a token that supports all transactions within YZY MONEY,” and YZY MONEY can “let you control everything and not be affected by centralized authority.”
His X post was accompanied by a picture, suspected to be his cryptocurrency address, and also an official website link.
After he released a video to confirm that the YZY was released, the market value of the YZY token once reached US$3 billion.According to the GMGN.Ai analytics platform, the token’s market value is currently about $1.14 billion.The highest trading price was $3.23, and it has fallen to $1.1493 as of press time, down 64.42% from the highest point.
YZY MONEY’s official website has specific information on YZY token economics: 20% is used for public offerings, 10% is used for liquidity pools, 30% is allocated to Yeezy Investments LLC (3 months locked for 3 months, 24 months linear release), 20% will be allocated to the team (6 months locked for 24 months linear release), and 20% will be used for ecological development funds (12 months locked for 24 months linear release).
YZY cast on Solana.YZY is intended as an “expression of support and participation” of the ideal embodied by the symbol, rather than an investment opportunity.The YZY ecosystem includes Ye Pay, a cryptocurrency payment processor that allows merchants to accept credit and crypto payments at lower fees, and YZY credit cards.
YZY adopts an anti-sniper mechanism, deploys 25 contract addresses, and only one is selected as the official YZY token.The token’s exercise plan uses Jupiter Lock, an open source and audited protocol, divided into three sections, each with a different cliff period and a 24-month exercise period.Trading is available through Meteora on Solana, with the official liquidity pool address being announced.
2. Controversy about YZY
1. Insider wallet arbitrage
Coinbase director Conor Grogan posted on social media, “According to my estimates, at least 94% of YZY tokens are held by insiders; 87% of tokens are held by a single multi-signature wallet (now spread out to multiple wallets); more than 3% of tokens are purchased by multiple (pre-prepared) wallets at the opening of the market; more than 7% of tokens are in the liquidity pool.”
According to Lookonchain monitoring, after YZY is launched, only YZY has been added to the liquidity pool, and there is no USDC.Developers can sell YZY by adding/removing liquidity, similar to LIBRA.Multiple insider wallets have funds ready in advance and buy YZY immediately after the announcement is released.Among them, the address starting with 6MNWV8 tried to buy yesterday, and today spent 450,611 USDC to buy 1.29 million YZYs for US$0.35, and sold 1.04 million YZYs for US$1.39 million, leaving 249,907 YZYs (about US$600,000), making a profit of more than US$1.5 million.
In addition, an investor suspected of having information about tokens lost $710,000 due to the wrong buy-in YZY.Subsequently, the address bought the genuine YZY for $761,000 and has made a profit of more than $710,000.
2.Did Kanye West really issue coins?
Back in February, Kanye West had said he would not issue cryptocurrencies because they “would use hype to deceive fans,” West also noted that he was contacted to let him scam in the social media community to promote a fake cryptocurrency for $2 million.
As a result, many people do not believe that Kanye West has really issued coins, and they suspect that Kanye West’s account has been stolen.On X, many people speculated that the video content was generated by Kanye West, not recorded by Kanye West himself.
Polymarket even launched a bet on whether the Kanye account was attacked.
However, the official website and his online store list YZY as a potential payment option, suggesting that the project may really be launched by Kanye West.
3. How do you view the phenomenon of celebrities issuing coins?
The phenomenon of celebrity issuing coins is common in the cryptocurrency industry.From the US president to celebrities in all fields, there are many people who issue coins.
On January 17, 2025, Trump announced his Meme Coin: TRUMP Coin on social media.After the TRUMP coin went online, the price fluctuated sharply, with an opening price of US$0.1824, rising more than 15,000% in 12 hours to about US$30, reaching a maximum of US$75.35 in 24 hours, with a market value of US$82 billion, and then the price fell.
On the second day after Trump issued the coins, his wife Melania also issued the Meme coin named after herself, and the Meme coin of the same name of the youngest son, “BARRON”, was later launched.
In late May 2025, Olympic decathlon champion Caitlyn Jenner released his Meme coins on the Pump.fun platform; R&B singer Jason Drewo and Sahil Arora had jointly issued JASON tokens; rapper Waka Flocka Flame also issued his Meme coins FLOCKA; Australian musician Iki Azaria had issued the token MOTHER.
Without exception, these celebrity coins were once sought after and then quickly fell back. Except for the occasional TRUMP coins that have risen sharply due to some of Trump’s words and deeds, most celebrity coins have long disappeared.
Celebrities use their own popularity, traffic, and fans to monetize, which is the result of the collision of “attention economy” and “hype”.Whether it is a president or an ordinary celebrity, the token will usually rise quickly after it is launched, and then the market will plummet.Due to the lack of actual value support, the rising market and popularity can only be a flash in the pan.
Celebrities are first faced with regulatory compliance issues when issuing coins. Under the US regulatory framework, many celebrity coins are considered “unregistered securities”, involving risks such as “illegal fundraising” and “illegal issuance of token tickets”.Secondly, most Meme coins are suspected of cutting leeks, have no actual value support, attract fans to invest only by celebrity effect, and have arbitrary bad business behaviors such as pulling the market and smashing the market have caused many investors to be harvested by capital.Finally, there are serious speculative behaviors in the issuance of coins by celebrities, which is contrary to the geek spirit of encryption technology, and technological innovation is even more unfavorable to the long-term development of the industry.
But celebrities are not useless to issue coins.For example, after Trump issued the TRUMP currency, more Americans learned about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, and began to try to participate, which has certain positive significance for enhancing the public’s awareness of cryptocurrencies.
4. Summary
YZY is still in its early stages, and whether the project can be really successful depends on its actual implementation.If there are no real application scenarios in the future, YZY is just a speculative Meme coin and is destined to be submerged in countless tokens.For investors, they should invest rationally and not blindly follow the trend and speculate. Being able to identify projects with long-term actual value is the king of investment.
P.S.: Who is Kanye West?
Kanye West is an American rapper, singer and record producer, known for his varied musical style and polarized cultural and political commentary.He has won the Grammy Award 24 times,Record sales reached 160 million copies.He is often the focus of controversy due to his actions on social media, awards ceremony and public occasions, and his comments on the music and fashion industry, American politics, race and slavery.His Christian faith, his high-profile marriage to Kim Kardashian, his disagreement with Taylor Swift and Drake, and his mental health are also topics of media concern.In 2020, Kanye West had been in the independent presidential election but failed.
