On August 21, 2025, American rapper Kanye West released the cryptocurrency Yeezy Money (YZY). Unfortunately for investors and fans, almost immediately after its bright launch, the coin’s price collapsed.
Here’s how it happened and why Kanye West is being accused of crypto fraud.
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Kanye and His Cryptocurrency
Within a couple of hours after the launch of Yeezy Money (YZY) on August 21, the coin rose by more than 1550%. However, a rollback began, which continues at the time of writing this review.
Some members of the crypto community managed to profit from the pump. However, most suffered losses. Stories are surfacing online about people losing $500,000 and more on YZY.
Yeezy Money (YZY) chart. Source: geckoterminal
At the same time as the coin’s launch, Kanye West’s clothing brand platform YEEZY introduced a feature to pay for goods with the musician’s cryptocurrency.
The rapper calls the project a “new on-chain economy.” Following the coin’s presentation, project representatives announced the upcoming release of a card with which token holders would supposedly be able to pay.
Unfortunately for the musician, almost immediately after trading began, hundreds of accusations began to spread online.
Accusations
One of the first to draw attention to the project’s dubious details were analysts from Lookonchain. They noted that in the Yeezy Money liquidity pool there was only the musician’s token, although it should have been paired with the USDC stablecoin. According to analysts, such a scheme allows developers to sell tokens at any time, thereby crashing the price.
Lookonchain also recorded insider trading with YZY. According to their observations, at least several people knew about the imminent start of trading. They prepared in advance for the launch.
Reports appeared online suggesting that Kanye West’s token launch could be connected to another crypto project, LIBRA. Recall that the coin was promoted by Argentina’s president Javier Milei, who later faced the threat of impeachment. On-chain investigator Dethective is convinced the projects share the same insiders.
Here are the figures provided by Kurrco analysts. According to their data, 56,050 wallets interacted with the token, and most lost significant amounts:
- 14,957 lost up to $500
- 1,273 lost from $500 to $1,000
- 1,878 lost from $1,000 to $5,000
- 429 lost from $5,000 to $10,000
- 523 lost from $10,000 to $100,000
- 64 lost from $100,000 to $1 million
- 1 lost over $1 million
Meanwhile, only five wallets left the project with profits of more than $1 million.
The crypto community also points out that:
- From the very beginning, 94% of the coins were in the hands of a limited number of wallets. One holder controlled 87% of the entire supply, and the top six controlled more than 70%.
- Even large players lost money.
- Scammers launched fake versions of the token, where users lost another about $710,000.
They claim that the first YZY buyer was someone who had previously made $100 million on the launch of U.S. President Donald Trump’s token. The authors believe that one of the project’s insiders may be behind the deal.
Members of the crypto community believe that what happened with YZY is an outright scam. The story resembles a typical pump-and-dump scheme. Its essence is to first inflate the cryptocurrency’s price, having bought tokens early, and then dump them at the peak. This triggers a sell-off that eventually crashes the asset’s value.
Not the Only One
Kanye West is not the first, but perhaps one of the most high-profile rappers to launch a personal cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, practice shows that such crypto projects are doomed to die. A table is circulating online showing artists who, like Kanye, once launched coins. Judging by the results, investors are not very interested in such projects.
Results of rappers’ cryptocurrencies. Source: x.com/sol_nxxn
Kanye West’s addition to the list of celebrities whose tokens turned into worthless “pieces of paper” has sparked memes.
“Kanye West leaves the crypto market with investors’ money.”
Conclusions
There have been many failed celebrity cryptocurrency launches in the history of the crypto community. Therefore, a celebrity’s big name at the head of a project does not guarantee successful investments. Kanye West with Yeezy Money (YZY) became yet another proof of this sad theory.
At the time of writing this review, Kanye West has not commented on the scam accusations. His project team continues to promote YZY as the native token of the ecosystem.
There have been cases where celebrities were held accountable for promoting crypto scams. For example, Kim Kardashian had to answer for advertising EthereumMax, and Steven Seagal — for Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G).
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