tl;dr
Kanye West’s YZY token is in freefall, with its value plummeting nearly 81% from its peak just days after launch—amid a chaotic web of hacked social media accounts, fake tokens, and a market that seems to be playing a high-stakes game of whack-a-mole. The rapper, known for his larger-than-life perso...
Kanye West’s YZY token is in freefall, with its value plummeting nearly 81% from its peak just days after launch—amid a chaotic web of hacked social media accounts, fake tokens, and a market that seems to be playing a high-stakes game of whack-a-mole. The rapper, known for his larger-than-life persona, is now at the center of a crypto drama that’s raised more questions than answers.
The real YZY token, launched on Solana, has clawed back a meager 1% today, trading at a market cap of just $73.5 million. But the real trouble began when Kanye’s Instagram account—home to nearly 20 million followers—was allegedly hacked. The account followed two profiles: his partner, Bianca Censori, and a suspiciously named “yzytoken” page. That page, it turns out, was promoting a counterfeit YZY token, which had already launched on Solana’s Pump.fun platform earlier Tuesday.
The fake token’s contract address, listed alongside the real one in the profile’s bio, was enough to send the impostor’s market cap soaring to $7 million before crashing. The QR code on the page, paired with the cryptic prompt “(‘Restart now? (y/n): ‘) == ‘y.’,” only deepened the mystery. Kanye took to X to warn fans, sharing the official token’s address and urging them to avoid the fake.
The confusion has left investors reeling. The real YZY token, which had initially surged to a $3 billion fully diluted value (FDV), is now languishing at $565 million. Meanwhile, unaffiliated Kanye-themed tokens took a hit, with some dropping 88% as the market scrambled to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit.
But not everyone is losing out. Insiders and early investors, including Hayden Davis—a figure tied to the controversial Libra meme coin promoted by Argentine president Javier Milei—have reportedly pocketed around $12 million in profits from the YZY launch. Davis’s involvement adds a layer of intrigue, as the Libra token’s launch was itself a lightning rod for debate over the ethics of celebrity-backed crypto projects.
Kanye’s foray into the crypto world has been a rollercoaster, blending his cultural influence with the volatile nature of meme coins. Yet, as the YZY saga unfolds, one thing is clear: in the wild west of crypto, even a superstar can’t outmaneuver a hack, a fake token, and a market that’s as unpredictable as it is lucrative.
So, what’s next? Will YZY rebound, or is this just the beginning of a long, bumpy ride? And can any meme coin, no matter how iconic, survive the chaos of social media hacks and copycats? The answers, as always, lie in the ever-shifting sands of the crypto world.