TLDR
- 13 wallets made over $24.5 million profit trading Kanye West’s YZY token
- YZY token spiked 1,400% to $3 before crashing 74% within 24 hours
- Over 94% of supply was controlled by insiders at launch
- Andrew Tate made $16,000 profit shorting YZY despite personal crypto losses of $699,000
- Over 56,000 wallets interacted with the token, with 27,000 still holding more than $1 worth
Kanye West’s entry into the cryptocurrency world has followed a familiar celebrity memecoin pattern, with massive profits for early insiders and substantial losses for retail investors. The YZY token, launched on Solana last Thursday, saw dramatic price swings that left thousands of wallets devastated while a small group of traders extracted millions.
Data from Nansen shows that 13 wallets made more than a million dollars each trading YZY, with a combined profit of $24.5 million. These profits came as the token experienced wild price fluctuations, spiking 1,400% within an hour of its launch to hit $3 before plummeting 74% to around $0.77 in less than 24 hours.
The launch has been marred by controversy, with many observers pointing to alleged insider trading and coordinated “sniping” – a practice where sophisticated traders use bots to purchase tokens at launch before regular investors can act. Blockchain data reveals that over 94% of the token supply was controlled by insiders at launch, with a single multisig wallet holding 87%.
Dune Analytics reports that more than 56,000 wallets interacted with the memecoin, while Nansen found that over 27,000 wallets still hold more than $1 worth of YZY. However, data also showed that among the first 99 addresses to buy the token, only nine still held any YZY at the time of reporting.
The Winners and Losers
The disparity between winners and losers in the YZY trading frenzy has been stark. While 13 wallets walked away with massive profits, many others suffered heavy losses. According to Nansen, the biggest loser realized a loss of $1.8 million, followed by another wallet that lost $1.2 million. One trader was still holding YZY tokens with an unrealized loss exceeding $800,000.
Crypto data provider Bubblemaps described the situation as “worse than we thought” after revealing the identity of the first buyer as the same sniper who had previously purchased the Trump memecoin, making millions in that venture as well. They suggested the existence of “an elite group of snipers who don’t compete but coordinate, making millions destroying charts.”
A blockchain investigator linked a sniper known as “Naseem” to another set of wallets behind the controversial LIBRA token, implying that the same operator may have extracted tens of millions of dollars using insider knowledge across multiple token launches.
One wallet labeled “6MNWV8” spent 450,611 USDC to buy 1.29 million tokens at $0.35 each, later selling most for 1.39 million USDC while retaining holdings still worth $600,000. Another whale invested 12,170 SOL (valued at $2.28 million) for 2.67 million tokens and continues to hold an unrealized gain of about $6 million.
Celebrity Tokens and Market Patterns
The YZY token is far from the first celebrity-linked cryptocurrency to follow this pattern of rapid rise and fall. TikTok influencer Haliey Welch launched a memecoin called HAWK in December, which showed a price chart almost identical to YZY’s, dumping 90% in just a few hours. Retail traders lost millions in that case, while a group of insiders pocketed $3 million according to Bubblemaps.
Other celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Iggy Azalea, Caitlyn Jenner, and Lindsay Lohan have been associated with alleged memecoin pump-and-dump schemes. These patterns have led some observers to question whether celebrity tokens truly help onboard new users to cryptocurrency or simply facilitate wealth transfers to insiders.
Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has also been involved in the YZY saga, reportedly making a $16,000 profit by shorting the token with a three-times leveraged position opened at $0.8524. However, his broader crypto trading record is less impressive, with only 29 profitable trades out of 80 on Hyperliquid, a win rate of just 36.25% and total losses of approximately $699,000.
Tate himself has launched several memecoins, including Daddy Tate ($DADDY) which reached a $124.57 million market cap by July 2024 before collapsing to $17.79 million a year later. On-chain analysis later revealed that 11 wallets bought up 20% of the supply just before Tate began promoting it.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes commented on the YZY situation with regret, saying “Oopsie… fam next time pls don’t let me trade shitters like YZY. Should have just kept two-steppin.”
The YZY token now has a market cap of approximately $100.3 million, down from its peak of $3 billion reached within 40 minutes of launch.
