Kanye West, the rapper turned entrepreneur who now goes by Ye, has unveiled YZY, a new meme coin on Solana. What began as a hyped debut soon turned messy, as claims of insider trading and wild price volatility overshadowed the token’s first hours on the market. West, who has officially rebranded himself as Ye, unveiled YZY on Aug. 21, touting it as the foundation of “A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN.” What is Kanye West’s YZY token? According to the project’s official website , the YZY token will act as the base currency for an ecosystem designed to support payments and commerce as part of a larger initiative branded as YZY Money. Down the line, the project also plans to introduce Ye Pay, a crypto-focused payments service, and the YZY Card, a tool that would reportedly make both YZY and USD Coin spendable for day-to-day transactions. With YZY Money, developers hope to challenge traditional finance alternatives by lowering the fees merchants typically pay on credit card transactions. The token’s supply, as outlined in project papers, is divided into public allocations, liquidity set aside for trading, and long-term reserves tied to Yeezy Investments LLC. Those reserves are scheduled to unlock gradually using Jupiter Lock, an audited protocol built on Solana. To prevent token sniping at launch, the developers created 25 contract addresses and announced that only one would be chosen as the official YZY contract in a bid to level the playing field for retail buyers, a measure the team described as an “anti-sniping mechanism.” Rumours of YZY’s launch first surfaced months earlier The token’s arrival follows months of speculation. In February 2025, CoinDesk reported on leaked documents suggesting that Ye was preparing to release his own token under the YZY brand. At the time, the proposed allocation for YZY led to some concern. Documents indicated that 70% of the supply would go to Ye himself, leaving just 30% for liquidity and investors. Even though some of Ye’s tokens would be locked under a vesting schedule of up to 12 months, critics warned that the allocation skewed heavily in favour of the rapper. The February leak carried an added sting because it clashed with Ye’s past remarks on crypto. In 2023, he told fans he had refused $2 million to promote a fraudulent token, warning that such projects “prey on the fans with hype.” His eventual entry into the market highlighted a reversal of that position, which may be fueled in part by financial pressures after several brands, including Adidas, Balenciaga, and Shopify, severed ties with him following antisemitic remarks. When YZY officially launched earlier today, it sparked a trading frenzy on Solana. Roughly 40 minutes into launch, the token’s market capitalisation soared to $3 billion, briefly making it one of the most valuable new tokens of the year. By the time the dust settled, however, its value had dropped to around $1 billion. At press time, the meme coin is down roughly 61% from its all-time high of $2.95 hit earlier today. YZY can currently be traded on Meteora, a Solana-based decentralised exchange, where liquidity pools have been set up to support buying and selling. Allegations of insider trading Despite attempts to portray the launch as fair, blockchain analysts were quick to spot some irregularities. For instance, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain reported that only YZY tokens were added to the liquidity pool, meaning developers could manipulate liquidity and potentially sell their holdings at will. According to Coinbase director Conor Grogan, insiders controlled nearly all of the YZY supply at the start, with one multisig wallet alone holding 87% before being broken up and distributed. The post Kanye West launches YZY token as insider trading allegations emerge appeared first on Invezz
