Key Notes
- Kanye West’s YZY has pulled a fast one on thousands of holders after a more than 70% crash.
- Upon its launch, the YZY price reached as high as $3.163, making a few insiders millionaires.
- It has now retraced to $0.6966, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Kanye West-listed YZY has successfully made millionaires out of the owners of 13 wallets, while leaving many other holders high and dry, according to Nansen.
Only four days old, but this meme coin is already flipping the script on finance. Meanwhile, the broader cryptocurrency market remains faced with a downtrend, placing the price of Bitcoin (BTC) at around $113,000.
Is Kanye West Caught in Another Celeb Pump and Dump?
YZY, which is the native token for Ye Pay, was launched by American rapper Kanye West on August 18.
Ye Pay was claimed to be a payment processor designed to slash merchant fees and facilitate smooth transactions. The first few hours following the token’s debut saw its price skyrocket at an alarming rate.
Precisely, the YZY price reached as high as $3.163 upon its launch, with a percentage rally of 1,400%. Its market capitalization also hit $3 billion during this time. The price later crashed by almost 74.93% to $0.79.
At the time of this writing, the memecoin was trading at $0.6966, corresponding to a 40.07% dip within the last 24 hours. Its 24-hour trading volume is also down by 85.71% and resting at $132.19 million.
Judging by his reputation and massive fan base, the initial value spike may have resulted from Kanye’s hype of the new financial system. He also made holders feel like they are an integral part of the ecosystem by discussing physical crypto cards for real-world swipes, exclusive meetups for the squad, and merchandise drops, among other topics.
Per the Nansen data , 13 wallets secured a profit of about $24.5 million before they dumped the token.
YZY Token Profit and Loss Leaderboard | Source: Nansen
This underscores speculation that the project may have engaged in insider trading with holders. Over 56,000 wallets interacted with the meme coin, per a Dune Analytics query. Nansen noted that there were still over 27,000 wallets holding more than $1 worth of YZY.
A single wallet realized a loss of $1.8 million, and another around $1.2 million. There is a trader, still holding its YZY tokens, who has an unrealized loss of more than $800,000.
Bubblemaps has reasons to believe that the first buyer of this token is the same sniper who first bought the TRUMP memecoin when it launched. This wallet ended up making millions in the process.
Are Celebrity Token Promotions Dangerous?
The celebrity token launch and dump may be gaining popularity in the cryptocurrency sector. In April, Argentina’s President Javier Milei faced backlash for promoting the LIBRA token , which later crashed after reaching a value of $4 billion.
In this regard, crypto enthusiasts are always encouraged to conduct due diligence before investing their funds in any project, regardless of who is promoting it.
CrediX, a Solana-based blockchain platform, was recently accused of carrying out a rug pull on its holders. Approximately $4.5 million was lost due to the incident, which claimed it was under attack by a malicious actor who gained control of its system.
