Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

By Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )

No one expected that after a nearly five-month absence, Kanye West, the world's top rapper, would be back! This time, instead of posting a pre-announcement post like he'd done before, he directly tweeted the token issuance website and an image with the token contract address, effectively nailing the crypto world's "stealth launch."

The new coin, YZY, lived up to expectations, reaching a market capitalization of over $3.2 billion within a matter of hours. It has since fallen back to around $1.4 billion, with the token price currently trading at $1.45. Odaily Planet Daily will review this incident and its attendant impact in this article.

Kanye's surprise attack: YZY triggers a new wave of meme coin market craze, but it is also full of controversy

At 9:53 AM this morning, Kanye West announced the launch of a new token, YZY, on Platform X. While many were still trying to determine if his account had been hacked, he subsequently released a video directly on Platform X, appearing in person to announce the official release of the YZY token. The news sent the market into a frenzy.

Crypto KOLs are taking action: some are cashing in, others are holding back.

When it comes to celebrity meme coins, the ones who react the fastest are undoubtedly the crypto KOLs who have “settled down on the chain”.

After the new YZY token went online, crypto influencer DNF (@Ga__ke) quickly bought 490 SOL worth of YZY and posted on Platform X, "God."

Crypto KOL 0xSun chose a “quick in, quick out” strategy, buying 196 SOL YZY tokens , and then quickly selling about 250 SOL, making a profit of 11,000 USDT.

However, Ansem, a well-known overseas crypto KOL who had previously discussed cryptocurrencies with Kanye West, chose to "stand still" - according to information on the GMGN website , Ansem's main wallet did not purchase YZY tokens.

As for James Wynn, the well-known trader who previously experienced a "one-way trip to heaven, one-way hell" due to opening a position in Hyperliquid, he also posted that he had bought YZY and highly praised Kanye West's coin issuance, saying, "This may actually usher in a situation where 'retail investors kick off the bull market.' Let's wait and see."

Not to be outdone, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes posted a message expressing his hope that Kanye West wouldn't "rug" him, suggesting he'd already purchased YZY. Furthermore, the comment section below Kanye's coin launch included prominent entertainment industry streamer HongKongDoll and BAGS founder FINN. The former echoed Arthur's sentiments, while the latter suggested that Kanye's coin launch had triggered a new round of PvP competition.

Another focus of discussion regarding Kanye West's coin offering is whether he's serious about it this time, or is he just cashing in on the gains like previous celebrity coins?

Kanye West launches new currency and new products, but the terms are cryptic

The above questions were soon answered.

According to the official website of YZY MONEY (YZY), Kanye West also launched two companion projects: Ye Pay and YZY Card. Ye Pay is a cryptocurrency payment processor that allows merchants to accept both credit cards and cryptocurrencies, offering lower fees than the 3.5% typically charged by traditional platforms. Merchants can seamlessly integrate Ye Pay into their websites or apps, providing consumers with a simple and fast checkout experience. YZY Card is a non-custodial debit card that allows users to use YZY and USDC at millions of merchants worldwide. It allows users to spend cryptocurrencies directly without manual fiat conversion or relying on middlemen. YZY Card can be topped up with fiat or cryptocurrencies from any non-custodial wallet, supporting assets such as YZY, USDC, and USDT. This allows Kanye West's new coin to successfully capitalize on the "PayFi" concept, recasting itself as a "crypto project" with relevant products, rather than a purely meme-like coin with no real use case.

But some people have discovered other strange things about the information on the official website: According to the official document of YZY Money, the terms include a "class action waiver", which means "to the extent permitted by law, you agree not to initiate, join or participate in any class action with respect to any claim, dispute or controversy you may have against any protected party. You agree that the court may take injunctive relief to prevent such litigation or remove you from the litigation. You agree to pay the attorney fees and litigation costs incurred by any protected party in seeking such relief." In other words, the YZY token first blocks the way for retail investors to initiate class action lawsuits and use them to protect their rights, which is exactly the same as the routine of Trump's authentic Meme coin TRUMP.

At present, it is difficult for us to draw the conclusion that "Wanye West is really going to develop a serious encryption project."

A Brief Discussion on the Impact of Kanye West's Coin Launch: DEXs and CEXs Compete to List Tokens, LPs Earn Money, and Solana's Performance Reaches a New High

After the new version of YZY token was launched, in addition to the crypto KOLs and retail investors who started passionate on-chain transactions, the ones who responded the fastest were undoubtedly the numerous CEXs and DEXs.

CEXs are ahead, DEXs are catching up

Less than half an hour after YZY was officially launched, Moonshot took the lead in announcing the launch of YZY.

Subsequently, many CEXs followed suit: Gate Alpha , Bitget Spot , LBank , BitMart Discovery Zone, BitMart Contract , Gate Contract , etc. launched YZY.

DEXs are also experiencing strong growth: Hyperliquid quickly launched a YZY/USDC perpetual contract , supporting up to 3x leverage. Meanwhile, because YZY's liquidity addition method is similar to that of the Argentinian President Mille's token, LIBRA , the largest YZY liquidity pool on Meteora, according to relevant information , once exceeded $200 million in TVL, but has now fallen back to $120 million. Furthermore, this LP pool has generated $9.85 million in fees.

Polymarket, a gambling platform, launches a special zone for YZY betting.

After YZY launched, Polymarket, a guessing platform, quickly launched a dedicated YZY section , featuring topics such as "Has Kanye West's official account been hacked?", "Will Hayden Davis go to jail this year?", and "Can YZY reach $10 billion in FDV by Friday?" As of press time, only 2% of respondents believed Kanye West's account was hacked.

Solana's performance faces another test, with impressive results

It’s worth noting that just as Solana’s network performance faced a significant test and withstood the impact of Trump’s coin launch in January of this year, Kanye West’s coin launch has once again brought Solana’s performance to the forefront.

According to a post from Solana Floor, the Solana network’s real TPS (non-voting transactions) reached 2,300 during the YZY token launch, a record high . This shows that the network has made significant progress since the launch of the TRUMP coin.

Conclusion: Is it Kanye's new currency or insider trading?

At the end of the incident, judging from the current performance of the YZY new currency, it is still difficult to conceal the nature of insider trading.

According to Lookonchain monitoring , an insider spent 450,000 USDC to purchase 1.89 million YZY at $0.24 through two wallets, then sold 1.59 million YZY at $2.12 for 3.37 million USDC. The address still holds over 303,000 YZY (US$510,000), representing a profit of over $3.4 million (+760%). Furthermore, to ensure first access, one wallet even paid a priority fee of 129 SOL ($24,000).

Coinbase executive Conor Grogan also published a statement revealing that at least 94% of the new Kanye tokens are internally held, with 87% previously controlled by a single multi-sig wallet now dispersed across multiple addresses. Approximately 3% was purchased in large quantities by multiple wallets at the market opening, and 7% was used in liquidity pools. This is clearly inconsistent with the token economic model on the YZY token website, which states that "20% is publicly issued, and 30% belongs to the issuer and is locked up for three months."

Interestingly, perhaps because the token issuance contract required Kanye West to release relevant information "across all platforms," or perhaps because the new YZY token is truly Kanye West's personal creation, he even posted a video announcing the token launch on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu , demonstrating his professionalism. As for the future price performance of the YZY token, we can only leave it to fate.

Odaily Planet Daily reminds users that Meme coin fluctuates greatly, so please be aware of the risks.