Kanye West tries to pull a Donald Trump card, scores $3 billion in minutes before crashing to nothing in the volatile crypto market

Kanye West’s YZY memecoin skyrocketed to $3 billion within minutes of launch. Built on Solana, the coin gives Ye 70% supply.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | August 22, 2025 09:41 AM IST

Kanye West's YZY Token Surges, Crashes Amid Market Hype

Kanye West, now officially going by Ye, recently launched his own memecoin, YZY. Following in the footsteps of other celebrities and even former President Donald Trump, who released his own coin earlier, Ye debuted YZY on the Solana blockchain. The coin saw a massive surge before dropping sharply. Memecoins are cryptocurrencies built around jokes, celebrities, or cultural trends, and their value often swings wildly depending on popularity.

Kanye West’s memecoin hit $3 Billion in Market cap

The Yeezy crypto token, built around the rapper’s lifestyle brand, was quietly launched on August 20. Within minutes, its price surged nearly 6,800 percent, briefly giving it a market value of $3 billion. Taking to X, Ye wrote, “Yeezy money is here. A new economy, built on chain.” He followed up with another post: “YZY money is a concept to put you in control, free from centralized authority.” Built on Solana, the coin gives Ye 70% of the total supply. According to Yahoo Finance, 10% is set aside for liquidity and 20% is available for sale. Earlier, Ye reportedly demanded an 80% share.

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CoinGecko data shows the token launched at $2.00, but minutes later, its market value crashed to around $1.5 billion, leaving each coin sustaining roughly $1.00. The launch comes amid a crypto and bitcoin boom which has skyrocketed the total value of the cryptocurrency market to $4 trillion. One of the biggest reasons behind this boom is US President Donald Trump and his family, including First Lady Melania and son Barron Trump’s memecoin trend, followed by celebrities like Elon Musk and others, including high-profile endorsements from Wall Street investors. Earlier, Trump’s own memecoin surged to nearly $9 billion but has since fallen to around $1.7 billion.

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The recent move from Ye comes after his failed attempt to revive his derailed career, where he was canceled over antisemitic rants. The rapper has been involved in various controversies over the years and has lost sponsors and deals. This also includes the rapper being de-banked by JPMorgan in 2022, when Chase cut ties with him shortly after Forbes named him a millionaire with a net worth of $2 billion, which has now fallen to around $400 million.

Ye tried to bounce back financially through his Yeezy Money project, which also includes Ye Pay. The application is designed to allow merchants to accept both credit cards and cryptocurrencies with lower platform fees compared to others. Similarly, the Yeezy Card is a debit card letting users spend YZY or stablecoins like USDC directly. Memecoins have a history of extreme volatility and thus a lot of people think its worth taking a risk. For example, Dogecoin, one of the oldest memecoins is currently the top ten cryptocurrency with a market value of $33 billion. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is at $2.2 trillion. Kanye West has long been a fan of cryptocurrency. In a 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, he praised Bitcoin and crypto innovators, saying they offer “true liberation.” At the time, he expresses his interest in the market claiming this would be the perfect chance to build a new economic frontier outside traditional political and financial systems.

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