Original author: David, Deep Tide TechFlow
Reposted: Oliver, Mars Finance
Are you familiar with the guy in this picture?
The crypto world has its painful memories. Retail investors who frequently lose money must know who he is: Hayden Davis (also known as Kelsier), the founder of the crypto investment firm Kelsier Ventures.
He participated in insider trading and liquidity manipulation in celebrity token projects, extracting huge profits that left retail investors with nothing; his most well-known operations involve the $MELANIA of the First Lady and the $LIBRA of Argentine President Milei.
Davis personally admitted to participating in the issuance strategy of the $MELANIA project, and on-chain data shows that insiders had already positioned themselves before the token went public, subsequently cashing out precisely when the price skyrocketed.
In the $LIBRA token released on Valentine's Day, February 14 this year, Davis was not only a core promoter of the project but also claimed to be the 'blockchain and AI advisor' to Argentine President Milei.
As a result, $LIBRA's market cap evaporated by $4.6 billion within 6 hours, and the team extracted $87 million USDC and SOL from the liquidity pool, profiting an additional $6 million through insider sniping.
According to the latest post from the on-chain analysis platform Bubblemaps, this guy likely made another move recently: last week, he made $12 million overnight from the $YZY token launched by Kanye West (Ye).
This is not the first time Davis has played this trick.
From MELANIA to LIBRA, and now to $YZY, his operational tactics are consistent: positioning ahead of time, striking quickly, and cashing out profits.
$YZY launched and my funds 'just happened' to unfreeze.
On August 20, 2025, a U.S. court unfreezed $57.6 million USDC previously related to the collapse of $LIBRA.
These funds belong to Hayden Davis and his associates; the court's reasoning includes 'no evidence of evasive behavior, no evidence of irreparable harm, and low likelihood of winning the case.'
Interestingly, Bubble Maps discovered a coincidental time point:
Just one day later, on August 21, Kanye West (Ye) announced the launch of the $YZY token.
What's even more coincidental is that 14 wallet addresses happened to obtain funds from centralized exchanges 24 hours before the release, linking back to some addresses previously disclosed by Hayden Davis through fund transactions, CCTP (Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol) transfers, and shared deposits.
These addresses formed a sniper cluster, ready to 'fire' when $YZY goes live.
While it cannot be confirmed whether Davis had insider information or direct contact with the YZY team, these 14 sniper addresses began buying just one minute after Kanye's token announcement (UTC time 1:54 AM), ultimately making a profit of $12 million.
As soon as $YZY launched, my funds just happened to unfreeze; although I didn't say I participated, the sniper addresses for YZY had dealings with me.
Old tricks
Putting these coincidences together, it is evidently impossible to claim that Davis did not participate in the sniping of YZY; at least the actual controllers or teams of these addresses have close ties to this notorious celebrity token sniper.
In the comments section of the original post on Bubblemaps, some even more conspiratorial individuals suspected that Davis not only sniped YZY but also participated in its issuance, with intentions of self-dealing.
This speculation is not unfounded, as Davis has a notorious track record of insider trading on LIBRA and MELANIA. Retail investors may forget the pain of losing money, but on-chain data has memory:
Previously, the address (P5tb4) earned $2.4 million from sniping $MELANIA and transferred it to 0xcEA (the creator of the Melania token). The latter then funded the $LIBRA creator's address DEfcyK and sniped $LIBRA to earn $6 million.
Moreover, the team formed by these addresses is also involved in trading other tokens that saw highs and lows, such as $TRUST, $KACY, $VIBES, and $HOOD, with total profits exceeding $100 million.
On-chain data reveals a chain of fund transactions involving a notorious insider trader in celebrity tokens. Combined with Davis's earlier public admission of actions in the issuance of tokens like LIBRA, this also highlights his systematic 'criminal' pattern:
Using celebrities (like Milei's brief endorsement of $LIBRA) to create hype, then extracting value, leaving a mess behind.
Previously, in an interview with Coffeezilla, Davis openly admitted to insider trading, wallet sniping, and market manipulation. He even stated publicly:
"This is a game for insiders. It is an unregulated casino."
In this big casino of MEME, the habitual offender remains the same, while the injured retail investors may have changed once again.
