Kanye West's Crypto Adventure.
Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News
Today at 09:53 Beijing time (August 21), the famous rapper Kanye West posted a heavyweight message on Twitter, announcing the launch of a new project with "YEEZY MONEY IS HERE, A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN" and attached the official website link money.yeezy.com. Notably, the tweet's image first disclosed the contract information for the YZY token.
As soon as the news was released, the YZY token market value experienced an explosive growth, soaring from around $200 million to 14 times that, reaching a market value of $3.1 billion, and currently settling around $2 billion.
In the early stages of the event, some community members questioned the security of Kanye West's Twitter account, speculating about a potential account breach. However, as the Moonshot platform officially launched the YZY token and Kanye West further confirmed YZY's authenticity through a Twitter video, the related controversy gradually subsided.
YZY Token Economics
The core concept of YZY MONEY is to build a financial ecosystem where users control their rights and break free from centralized authority, with YZY serving as the fundamental currency supporting all transactions within this ecosystem.
The YZY token economics are designed as follows: Total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 10% used for liquidity and 20% allocated to public supply.
Yeezy Investments LLC will receive 70% of the token supply, using a phased release mechanism to prevent early selling. Specifically:
- 30%: 3-month cliff + 24-month vest
- 20%: 6-month cliff + 24-month vest
- 20%: 12-month cliff + 24-month vest
Currently, YZY has opened a trading pair with USDC on Meteora, a liquidity management platform in the Solana ecosystem.
The official website indicates that the project has deployed 25 YZY contract addresses, with only one randomly selected as the official contract. This reduces the probability of identifying the correct contract address to 1/25, aiming to effectively defend against sniper attacks. Additionally, the project uses Jupiter Lock to manage on-chain locking and distribution of YZY tokens.
YZY MONEY Ecosystem
According to the official website, YZY, YE PAY, and YZY CARD are independent entities with different purposes:
- YZY is the fundamental currency supporting all transactions in the YZY MONEY ecosystem.
- YE PAY is a cryptocurrency payment processor accepting credit card and cryptocurrency payments.
- YZY CARD supports the use of YZY and USDC globally, potentially for consumption within the brand ecosystem.
Risks and Controversies
The YZY token released by Kanye West, a product combining personal IP with cryptocurrency, has sparked widespread market and community attention, reflecting both the influence of celebrity effects in the crypto field and hidden controversies and risks:
- High Centralization: The YZY token distribution shows a high concentration of ownership, with Yeezy Investments LLC holding absolute dominance (70% of tokens), while liquidity and public supply combined account for only 30%.
- Ecosystem Implementation Ambiguity: Although the project has proposed concepts like "YZY MONEY Financial System", "YE PAY", and "YZY CARD", it currently remains at the website description stage, lacking specific technical details, partner information, or implementation timeline.
- Investment Risk: The official website explicitly states that YZY is not an investment opportunity or security.
- Celebrity IP-Driven Market Hype and Short-Term Effect: The explosive growth of YZY token's market value is primarily driven by Kanye West's global influence. As an iconic figure in rap and fashion, his personal IP naturally attracts fans and speculators, creating short-term market enthusiasm. However, most previous celebrity tokens (like LIBRA) experienced significant decline after initial hype, and YZY faces similar doubts.
- Kanye West's past controversial statements and behaviors (such as extreme rhetoric and inconsistent business decisions) add further uncertainty to the project.
Kanye West's Connection with Cryptocurrency
This is not Kanye West's first interaction with cryptocurrency. As early as February 2025, Kanye West announced plans to launch a meme coin called YZY as the official currency of his Yeezy brand.
Subsequently, Kanye West publicly stated that he was learning about Bitcoin from crypto KOL Ansem.
Previously, multiple tokens related to YZY had appeared in the community, considered as "community-initiated tokens" or "imitations". Kanye West's recent actions formally confirm the official YZY token's launch.
Currently, YZY is in its early stages, and its success depends on actual utility (such as Yeezy merchandise payment), community support, and Ye's execution. The long-term value of crypto projects relies on practical application scenarios. If the ecosystem fails to deliver, the token may become purely speculative. For ordinary investors, it is crucial to be wary of irrational following under the "fan filter", fully recognize the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and the speculative nature of such projects, and make decisions cautiously.
