- Kanye West’s Solana meme coin YZY plunged 81% from launch highs, with its market cap falling to around $73.5M.
- An Instagram hack promoted a fake YZY token, which briefly hit a $7M market cap before collapsing 96%.
- Early insiders, including wallets linked to Libra promoter Hayden Davis, profited $12M, while retail traders were left holding heavy losses.
Kanye West’s long-awaited Solana meme coin, YZY, is having a rough start. Barely a week after launch, the token has already crashed nearly 81% from its highs—while Ye himself battles what he claims was an Instagram hack promoting a fake version of the coin.
The “real” YZY is up just under 1% today, but the fake knock-off, which popped up on Solana’s Pump.fun launchpad, has collapsed 96% from its peak and now trades at a laughable $160,000 market cap. For context, West’s official token once hit a staggering $3 billion fully diluted valuation before free-falling to just above $565 million FDV. Its market cap sits around $73.5 million at the time of writing—painful, considering the hype.
Ye posted on X to clear the air, writing: “My Instagram has been hacked and it’s following a fake coin” while tagging the official YZY account and sharing the legitimate Solana contract address ending in “YEEZY.”
Instagram Hack Fuels Fake YZY Frenzy
West’s Instagram, with nearly 20 million followers, briefly followed only two accounts—his wife Bianca Censori’s and a page called “yzytoken.” That page promoted the counterfeit coin, complete with its own contract address, a QR code, and a cryptic caption: “(‘Restart now? (y/n): ‘) == ‘y.’”
The damage? That fake coin pumped to a $7 million market cap before crashing back to reality. Just West’s accidental follow was enough to spark the frenzy.
Real YZY Still Struggling After Flashy Debut
Launched last week after months of rumors, the official YZY token triggered chaos across the Kanye-themed token scene, sending unaffiliated coins down as much as 88%. But the real YZY hasn’t exactly thrived either. From a near-$3B debut, it’s bled value rapidly, leaving holders frustrated while insiders cashed in big.
On-chain sleuths at Bubblemaps tied nearly $12 million in profits to Hayden Davis—yes, the same Davis linked to the Libra meme coin scandal promoted earlier this year by Argentine President Javier Milei. Davis’ wallets were buying YZY within minutes of its launch, just a day after U.S. courts unfroze funds connected to the failed Libra token.
Cleanup and Next Steps
By Tuesday afternoon, Kanye’s Instagram had unfollowed the fake “yzytoken” page, but the damage to investor confidence may linger. Between insider trades, a massive drawdown in price, and scam tokens siphoning attention, YZY’s debut feels more like chaos than celebration.
Whether the token can recover—or if it becomes another flash-in-the-pan celebrity coin—is still up in the air.
