Kanye West’s YZY Crypto Plummets 74% as Insiders Pocket $24.5 Million in Suspected Pump-and-Dump

YZY Token collapses amid allegations of coordinated insider liquidation—just another day in celebrity crypto land.

Massive Sell-Off Triggers Panic

Insiders dumped $24.5 million worth of tokens, crashing the price by 74% in hours. Retail investors got left holding the bag—classic move.

Celebrity Crypto Strikes Again

Another star-powered token proves that hype doesn't equal stability. When the influencers cash out, everyone else pays the price.

Regulatory Storm Brewing?

Watchdogs are circling. This kind of volatility doesn't go unnoticed—especially when millions vanish before the average trader can react.

Just remember: in crypto, if you're not at the insider table, you're probably on the menu.

TLDR

• 13 wallets made over $24 million profit from YZY token while retail investors lost millions
• YZY spiked 1,400% to $3 within an hour before crashing 74% to $0.77 in 24 hours
• Over 94% of token supply was controlled by insiders at launch, with coordinated snipers involved
• Andrew Tate made $16,000 profit by shorting the token despite his poor crypto trading record
• Pattern mirrors other celebrity memecoins like HAWK token that also crashed after insider dumps

Kanye West’s YZY memecoin launch on solana resulted in massive profits for a small group of insiders while leaving thousands of retail investors with heavy losses. Data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen reveals that 13 wallets each made over one million dollars trading the token.

The YZY token launched on Thursday and immediately spiked 1,400% within the first hour. The token reached a peak price of $3 and briefly hit a market capitalization of $3 billion before crashing. Within 24 hours of the spike, YZY had dropped 74% to approximately $0.77.

More than 56,000 wallets interacted with the memecoin according to Dune Analytics data. However, Nansen reported that over 27,000 wallets still held more than $1 worth of the token. Of the first 99 addresses to purchase YZY, only nine still held any tokens at the time of reporting.

Coordinated Insider Operations

Blockchain data reveals that over 94% of the token supply was controlled by insiders at launch. A single multisig wallet held 87% of the supply before retail investors could participate. This concentration of holdings enabled coordinated selling that devastated the token price.

Crypto data provider Bubblemaps identified the first buyer as a known sniper who previously profited from the TRUMP memecoin. The company stated they received intelligence pointing to coordinated sniping operations. “There’s an elite group of snipers who don’t compete but coordinate, making millions destroying charts,” Bubblemaps reported.

A blockchain investigator linked one sniper called “Naseem” to wallets behind the controversial LIBRA token extraction scheme. This suggests the same operators have extracted tens of millions using insider knowledge across multiple celebrity token launches.

The top 13 profitable wallets extracted a combined $24.5 million from YZY trading. One wallet spent 450,611 USDC to buy 1.29 million tokens at $0.35 each. This wallet later sold most holdings for 1.39 million USDC while retaining tokens worth $600,000.

Heavy Retail Losses

While insiders profited, retail investors faced devastating losses. The biggest losing wallet realized a $1.8 million loss according to Nansen data. Another wallet lost $1.2 million, and one trader held an unrealized loss exceeding $800,000.

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate bucked the trend by shorting YZY at $0.8524 with three-times leverage. Lookonchain data shows he pocketed approximately $16,000 profit as the token declined. However, Tate’s overall crypto trading record shows 80 trades with only 29 profitable, resulting in total losses of around $699,000.

Andrew Tate(@Cobratate) opened a 3x short on $YZY at $0.8524, now sitting on a profit of $16K.

But he doesn't seem to be good at perps trading.

So far, he's made 80 trades on #Hyperliquid — only 29 were profitable (win rate: 36.25%) — with total losses of $699K.… pic.twitter.com/ZvR9QZEVEk

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 22, 2025

The YZY launch follows a pattern seen with other celebrity memecoins. TikTok influencer Haliey Welch’s HAWK token crashed 90% within hours of launch in December. Bubblemaps found that retail traders lost millions while insiders extracted $3 million from HAWK.

Other celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Iggy Azalea, Caitlyn Jenner and Lindsay Lohan have faced allegations related to memecoin schemes. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes commented on the YZY situation, saying retail investors should avoid trading such tokens.

The current YZY market cap sits NEAR $100.3 million, down from its $3 billion peak. The token continues trading at $0.7743 according to CoinGecko data, representing a massive decline from its launch price surge.