Kanye West, who is now legally known as Ye, made a big move in the crypto markets.
Ye is a popular figure in the music industry with hit albums like The College Dropout (2004) and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). In recent times, he has been known for his bold, controversial comments and his fashion brand called Yeezy.
Kanye West's first encounter with crypto dates back to 2014, when a parody coin called Coinye West attempted to profit from Kanye by using his likeness and name. This made Kanye attempt a legal shutdown.
YZY money
On 21 August, Ye introduced his new token, $YZY. The token is part of The Yeezy Money project and runs on the Solana blockchain. The project has a Ye Pay payment processor and a YZY card that can be used to spend YZY and the stablecoin USDC.
According to data analytics platform Nansen, the YZY token's market capitalization reached $3 billion in just 40 minutes, but at the time of writing, it is down to $295.2 million.
According to reports , the token's price peaked at $31.15, but as of writing, it has crashed over 60% and is now down to $0.98.
The official website says that the token is unavailable in certain areas and also warns users about the risks of digital assets, such as the "potential for complete loss."
A possible scam?
Cointelegraph first pointed out that in February, Ye revealed to his fans how he was offered nearly $2 million to post about a fake Ye token. Ye wrote, "Those left of it, I said no and stopped working with their person who proposed it."
Another alarming aspect is that many are alleging insider trading. On-chain data shows that no USDC was added to the liquidity pool by Ye or his team. This indicates that developers can control liquidity at will and dump tokens on buyers by adjusting or removing liquidity.
Further, some wallets with "insider knowledge" were able to make very profitable trades, according to analytics firm Lookonchain. An early buyer made $3.4M after paying a lot of fees to get priority, and another sat on a $6 million profit at the token's peak.
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
