Author: Nancy, PANews
Half a year after the preview, the famous rapper Kanye West officially announces the launch of the MEME coin YZY. While market enthusiasm quickly rises, the controversies surrounding the control model and potential insider trading have made this issuance action highly questioned.
The team has a high degree of control, and the operating model is similar to the RUG coin LIBRA.
On August 21, Kanye announced the launch of a new brand YZY MONEY on social media and issued the token YZY on Solana. To prove the project's authenticity, the official also released a video featuring Kanye himself as endorsement.
According to YZY's tokenomics, 20% is used for public issuance, 10% for the liquidity pool, 30% allocated to Yeezy Investments LLC (locked for 3 months, linear release over 24 months), 20% will be allocated to the team (locked for 6 months, linear release over 24 months), and 20% will be used for the ecosystem development fund (locked for 12 months, linear release over 24 months). This means that over 70% of the shares are controlled internally, with a limited circulation ratio in the public market.
In order to avoid common front-running attacks, the team deployed 25 contract addresses in advance, and finally randomly selected one as the official contract. However, there were still users who front-ran and chose the wrong address, resulting in losses. For example, according to on-chain analyst Ai Auntie's monitoring, a certain address spent $767,000 betting on YZY on August 20, and has since cut losses, with a loss of about $704,000 in 3 hours. Nevertheless, this mechanism seems to enhance fairness while also leaving ample operational space for internal funds.
Simultaneously, YZY MONEY established collaborations with several popular MEME ecosystem-related platforms on Solana, including Meteora, Jupiter, and MoonPay, and it listed on Moonshot within 15 minutes of the announcement.
The celebrity effect combined with careful planning rapidly ignited the heat of YZY. GMGN market data shows that YZY's market value once surpassed $3.4 billion but has now fallen below $1 billion, with a daily trading volume exceeding $380 million, and its fee income has exceeded 2,500 SOL.
However, behind the fervent atmosphere, on-chain data reveals more details of insider operations. According to Lookonchain monitoring analysis, currently, only YZY has been added to the liquidity pool, not USDC. Developers can sell YZY by adding/removing liquidity, similar to the MEME coin LIBRA. Several internal wallets had funds prepared in advance and immediately bought YZY after the announcement. Insider wallet 6MNWV8 knew the contract address in advance and even attempted to purchase yesterday; 6MNWV8 spent 450,611 USDC today to buy 1.29 million YZY at a price of $0.35, and sold 1.04 million YZY for $1.39 million, leaving 249,907 YZY (about $600,000), with profits exceeding $1.5 million; an insider spent 450,000 USDC through 2 wallets to buy 1.89 million YZY at $0.24 and then sold 1.59 million YZY at $2.12 for 3.37 million USDC. To ensure they were the first to enter, one wallet even paid a priority fee of 129 SOL (worth $24,000).
Coinbase executive Conor Grogan also pointed out that the new Kanye token is at least 94% held internally, with 87% previously controlled by a single multi-signature wallet, which has now been dispersed to multiple addresses; about 3% was purchased in large amounts by multiple wallets at the opening, and 7% is used for the liquidity pool.
Scooter (@imperooterxbt), who was involved in exposing the LIBRA token insider information, stated that he could be 99% sure that Hayden Davis (LIBRA project advisor) participated in the release of the YZY token, as the YZY model is highly similar to LIBRA from a few months ago.
Even more intriguing is that just hours before the YZY news was announced, a U.S. judge had just lifted the freeze on $57.6 million in funds belonging to the founders of Libra. Scooter stated that 5 hours after Hayden Davis's funds were unfrozen, YZY was released, which may not be a coincidence.
To prevent investor lawsuits, YZY even explicitly included a 'class action waiver' in official documents. The document states, 'To the extent permitted by law, you agree not to bring, join, or participate in any class action lawsuit in relation to any claims, disputes, or controversies you may have against any protected party. You agree that a court may take injunctive relief measures to prevent such lawsuits or remove you from the lawsuit. You agree to pay any attorney fees and litigation costs incurred by any protected party in seeking such relief.'
In addition, during the YZY launch, Kanye also introduced 2 independent projects: Ye Pay and YZY Card.
Ye Pay is a cryptocurrency payment processor that supports merchants accepting credit card and cryptocurrency payments, with fees lower than the typical 3.5% charged by traditional platforms. Merchants can seamlessly integrate Ye Pay into their websites or applications, providing consumers with a simple and fast checkout experience.
YZY Card is a financial card that can be used globally with YZY and USDC. Users can recharge through any non-custodial wallet with fiat currency or cryptocurrency, supporting assets like YZY, USDC, USDT, etc. Additionally, Kanye also supports users to purchase Yeezy brand clothing using USDC or YZY (coming soon).
From resolute resistance to a fluctuating attitude, the motives for issuing coins spark controversy.
In fact, as early as February this year, when the MEME market was still in the celebrity coin fever driven by Trump, insiders revealed that Kanye West planned to imitate Trump's TRUMP token model and launch an official token for the Yeezy brand, expected to be issued on February 21 and usable for payments on its official website.
At that time, it was disclosed that in the token allocation plan, Kanye would personally receive a 70% share, liquidity supply would account for 10%, and investors would account for 20%. This information was reportedly disclosed by Yeezy CFO Hussein Lalani via email. However, the coin issuance plan was ultimately delayed due to issues related to the Rug incident involving Argentine President Milei's associated tokens.
Subsequently, a large number of tokens with the same name YZY appeared in the MEME market. However, before this, Kanye had stated on social media that he received a $2 million proposal to promote a RUG MEME coin. The behind-the-scenes party claimed that the collaboration could bring tens of millions of dollars in profits, but Kanye refused the cooperation and emphasized, 'I will not issue tokens; I only make products. I only do what I love and understand. I am already very wealthy; there is no need to do anything else. Token speculation is deceiving fans, just like the hyped sneaker culture.'
However, shortly after, Kanye posted again stating, 'All current tokens are fake, and I will launch next week.' Subsequently, he frequently followed or unfollowed some crypto industry accounts, such as CZ and the founder of Polychain Capital, raising market speculation about his coin issuance direction. However, that tweet was later deleted, and the community once thought Kanye's coin issuance plan had fallen through, not realizing he was waiting for the right moment.
Such a repeated attitude has drawn widespread criticism from the crypto community and raised doubts. Some KOLs speculate that Kanye's account may have been sold, citing multiple abnormal phenomena: for example, the system interface switched from dark mode to light mode, and new accounts related to Doginal were followed. However, Kanye denied this and stated that when he truly launches a cryptocurrency project, he will announce it in an official and clear manner.
A similar attitude was also evident when Kanye participated in the NFT space. As early as 2021, he participated in the issuance of an NFT for the single (Can U Be/Forever Mitus) but later stated, 'Don't make me do NFTs; I focus on real products in the real world, like food or clothing.'
From an early strong resistance to now personally launching a coin, Kanye West's motives and methods have pushed the project into a vortex of controversy, and the final outcome of this meticulously packaged capital game may only be revealed by time.
(The above content is excerpted and reprinted with the authorization of our partner PANews, original link)
"After a six-month delay, 'Kanye' officially launches a coin! Suspected to be operated by the Argentine presidential coin team, insiders profiting from front-running" This article was first published on (Block客).
