Author: Frank, PANews
The celebrity coin track has once again stirred waves, with globally influential yet controversial artist Kanye West announcing the release of his personal MEME token YZY on August 21, rapidly raising its market cap to over $3 billion. In just a few hours, some made millions of dollars from early layouts, while many others rushed in and got stuck at the peak.
PANews conducted an analysis of the first trades of the top 1,000 holders of YZY. This time, the issuance of YZY seems to have completely torn away the illusory link between celebrity token issuance and wealth stories. Rats and bots are profiting, and there are no 'civilian' winners in this game of celebrity coins.
Big holders entering the market accelerate but still get stuck at the peak
From the overall data, the average initial purchase price of the top 1,000 holding addresses for YZY is about $1.45. Among them, a large number of big holders' initial purchase prices are in the range of $1.80 to $2, with about 44% of big holders' initial purchase costs falling within this range. Perhaps due to being stuck immediately after buying, YZY's big holders, as of August 25, generally have not made initial sales, with 893 addresses buying and about 275 addresses selling some tokens, representing only about 30%.
From the perspective of timing, these big holders did not enter too late. Most of them concentrated on August 21 (the day the token was publicly launched), and the timing was also concentrated within 1 hour after Kanye's announcement. More than half of the addresses bought in within 2 hours after the token launched.
In terms of capital scale, the initial average investment amount of these large holders is about $285,000. This value is much higher than the average of the previous 1,000 addresses of Libra (approximately $9,696) but far lower than the average of $590,000 for the top 1,000 TRUMP tokens at that time. Overall, these large holders have a total position of about $46.76 million (excluding team holdings), accounting for about 8.5% of the total market value and about 65.3% of the total circulation.
From the selling effect, although only some big holders sold, the data shows that these exiting big holders basically sold at a loss. The average initial selling price was $1.19, compared to an average entry price of $1.45, with an average loss rate of about 18%. Additionally, the average position sold was far less than the entry, at only $11,800.
From this perspective, the main participants in YZY seem to be no longer retail investors but rather big holders enthusiastic about celebrity coins. Compared to previous TRUMP and LIBRA, this time the big holders entered the market faster, concentrated in the early trading period. However, unfortunately, the subsequent market recognition seems insufficient. By August 22, although YZY's price had fallen to below half of the initial big holders' price, only a handful of big holders chose to enter the market at this stage.
Rats and bots in the harvesting game
The largest single purchase by a big holder was made by the address ANGuXwT18StoX2Ghp3387x6vajPk3sEsxC89LngV5F5r, which spent $200,000 to buy 695,000 tokens within one minute after Kanye announced the address, with an average price of about $0.287. To complete this purchase, this address not only set a 40% slippage but also paid an additional 3.8 SOL to Jtio as a priority fee.
Of course, ultimately, half an hour later, this address sold for $1.82 million, profiting over $1.6 million.
It is worth noting that this address is also considered by the community to be a member of an insider group. From the operational behavior, there is indeed a possibility that this address was created on August 19 (the same day YZY's token was created) and withdrew about $200,000 in USDT and 49 SOL from Binance. After that, until the launch of YZY, this address did not engage in any other MEME coin transactions. Clearly, the creation of this address was to ambush the YZY token.
Among the statistical samples, there are 4 addresses that purchased YZY within 1 minute after the launch. However, there are also skilled bot traders, such as the address 6xuMV6W6QVxrVmsZxEdLfV6kfhuBsg3ah1X8rydLfQvy, which invested 300 SOL to buy YZY within 2 minutes after the launch, ultimately making a profit of about $80,000. From the trading behavior, this address frequently trades MEME tokens and has completed over 10,000 transactions to date.
Furthermore, according to a survey released by Bubblemaps, Hayden Davis, who previously planned and targeted celebrity coins like MELANIA and LIBRA, has once again acted, transferring funds through multiple centralized exchange addresses and targeting the YZY token at the first moment, ultimately profiting about $12 million.
The myth of celebrity coins collapses
In the past year, after Trump launched TRUMP, the issuance of celebrity coins had a period of concentrated issuance. However, the results show that these celebrity tokens generally experienced a decline of over 90%, causing great harm to investors.
As of now, TRUMP's circulating market value is approximately $1.65 billion, having fallen about 90% from its peak. The circulating market value of the First Lady token MELANIA is approximately $14.8 million, having dropped about 99% from its peak. The token issued by the President of Argentina, LIBRA, has a market value of only $5.4 million, evaporating 99.9% from its peak market value of $4.7 billion. Furthermore, the operating trajectories of these tokens all follow the same L-shaped pattern, reaching a climax shortly after issuance and then declining steadily.
Now, the issued YZY has only 27,000 holding addresses, which is far less than the previous celebrity coins' popularity. On the other hand, the high cost range of over $1.80 for big holders, along with the lack of subsequent participants, makes it exponentially more difficult to take profits. From the K-line perspective, almost all big holders who failed to enter within 10 minutes are stuck at the highest point, and the decline is rapid, falling 70% from the peak in just 2 hours. This drop and speed are even more exaggerated than some background-less MEME coins.
YZY early trend chart
Looking back at the many celebrity coins from TRUMP to YZY, we can clearly see a similar trajectory:
Blitzkrieg and head effect: The start of celebrity coins relies on the huge influence of celebrities, which can attract global attention and capital in an instant. This leads to a price surge in the early stages of trading, creating an astonishing profit space for a very few 'insiders' or 'early runners'. They use information advantages and technical means to complete the harvest before retail investors enter.
The confusion of retail investors and the takeover by 'big holders': unlike ordinary MEME coins, the second wave of main participants in celebrity coins is often wealthy big holders. They may have missed the initial golden minute, but due to their superstition about celebrity effects and gambling mentality, they choose to take over at high prices. However, once the heat cannot be sustained, and subsequent funds cannot keep up, these big holders become trapped together with the retail investors who come rushing in.
Value vacuum and L-shaped trend: Stripping away the aura of celebrities, these tokens themselves have almost no actual value and application scenarios to support them. When the hype subsides, market sentiment rapidly cools, and prices will 'free fall,' ultimately forming an unsightly 'L' shaped K-line. The myth of soaring prices exists only in the first few minutes or hours, followed by a long path to value zero. From TRUMP to LIBRA, and now to YZY, without exception, this 'iron rule' has been verified.
The turmoil surrounding YZY once again proves that the celebrity coin track is not a value blue ocean but a dangerous casino manipulated by information asymmetry and market sentiment.
In this game, the real winners are always those insiders and capital hunters who can layout in advance and harvest accurately. For the vast majority of ordinary investors, when they see news on social media, they are often standing at the peak of risk. The rapid rise and sudden cooling of YZY have once again sounded the alarm for the frenzied MEME market: often lurking beneath the halo of celebrities is an investment abyss that ordinary people find hard to bear.
When the next 'Kanye' appears, investors may want to ask themselves first whether they want to become fuel in someone else's wealth myth or choose to stay away from this celebration that is destined for a few to profit.
