Thirteen wallets pocketed over $24.5 million from trading Kanye West’s newly launched YZY token before its price crashed, blockchain data from Nansen shows.
The rapper launched YZY on Solana on Thursday, sparking a frenzy that saw the token soar more than 1,400% within an hour to hit $3. But the rally quickly unraveled, with YZY plunging 74% to around $0.77 in under 24 hours. The sudden reversal has drawn sharp criticism, with observers flagging alleged insider activity and sniper trading.
More than 56,000 wallets interacted with the token, according to Dune Analytics, while Nansen reported that around 27,000 still hold at least $1 worth. Yet, out of the first 99 buyers, only nine wallets continued holding YZY as of press time.
While a handful of traders made millions, others were left nursing steep losses. One wallet lost $1.8 million, another shed $1.2 million, and a third continued to hold an unrealized deficit of more than $800,000.
Crypto analytics platform Bubblemaps said its findings suggested deeper coordination among elite traders. It identified the first YZY buyer as the same sniper who previously made millions from trading the Trump memecoin. The firm added that intel linked this wallet to another sniper with a history of joint trades, calling the pattern “worse than we thought.”
“There’s an elite group of snipers who don’t compete but coordinate, making millions destroying charts,”
Bubblemaps wrote.
The controversy mirrors other celebrity-linked memecoin scandals. TikTok creator Haliey Welch’s HAWK token dumped 90% shortly after launch last December, costing retail traders millions while insiders walked away with around $3 million. Similar accusations have followed coins tied to Kim Kardashian, Iggy Azalea, Caitlyn Jenner, and Lindsay Lohan.
Commenting on the YZY crash, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes quipped on X: “Oopsie… fam next time pls don’t let me trade shitters like YZY. Should have just kept two-steppin.”
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