Kanye West’s Solana Memecoin YZY Rocked By Insider Trading Allegations

The Solana-based memecoin YZY, promoted by Kanye West (Ye), posted probably the most risky debuts of the 12 months, rocketing to a multi-billion-dollar valuation inside minutes earlier than retracing as on-chain sleuths flagged insider exercise and a contentious liquidity setup. In an X post on Thursday, West shared the contract handle and framed “YZY MONEY” as “A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN,” serving to propel the token to roughly $3 billion in market worth inside about 40 minutes, earlier than sliding sharply decrease later within the session.

YZY Faces Insider Buying and selling Claims On Solana

Early buying and selling instantly drew scrutiny. Analytics account Lookonchain alleged that “Solely YZY was added to the liquidity pool with no USDC. Dev might promote YZY by including/eradicating liquidity, similar to LIBRA,” a single-sided construction that may make exits opaque for retail takers and amplify slippage by add/take away liquidity operations.

A number of wallets appeared to have anticipated the launch mechanics. Lookonchain recognized pockets 6MNWV8 as having identified the contract handle forward of time, even making an attempt to buy it earlier than the token went reside. As soon as buying and selling opened, that pockets spent 450,611 USDC to accumulate 1.29 million YZY at roughly $0.35, later promoting 1.04 million YZY for 1.39 million USDC and retaining 249,907 YZY (about $600,000) — a take the analysts calculated as “a revenue of over $1.5M.”

A second cluster of transactions steered an orchestrated rush to the entrance of the queue. Based on Lookonchain, an insider spent 450,000 USDC throughout two wallets to purchase 1.89 million YZY at $0.24, then offered 1.59 million YZY for 3.37 million USDC at $2.12, nonetheless holding ~303,425 YZY (~$510,000). One of many addresses paid 129 SOL (≈$24,000) in precedence charges to win block area at launch.

Not each try to front-run succeeded. Lookonchain additionally documented a dealer who “purchased the unsuitable YZY and misplaced $710K,” then spent 761,000 USDC on the official token and recouped over $710,000 minutes later — a whipsaw emblematic of hyper-fragmented symbols throughout superstar launches.

Hypothesis unfold past spot markets. “Dealer 0x68c0 simply opened a 3x leveraged lengthy on $YZY once more,” Lookonchain wrote, noting that his earlier two lengthy makes an attempt inside the hour had already misplaced a mixed $159.6K.

Momentum in the end broke. “YZY has dropped under $1,” Lookonchain posted, including that whale 6ZFnRH spent 1.55 million USDC to purchase 996,453 YZY at $1.56, solely to exit at $1.06 for 1.05 million USDC — a ~$500,000 loss in below two hours.

At community degree, the launch grew to become a live-fire stress test for Solana. SolanaFloor reported that the chain’s “true TPS (non-vote transactions) hit 2,300 for the primary time” throughout the YZY debut — a brand new peak for actual transaction throughput and a marked enchancment from earlier celebrity-token frenzies.

Past discrete pockets anecdotes, broader provide focus knowledge fanned the “insider” narrative. Coinbase’s Conor Grogan pointed to on-chain snapshots suggesting no less than 94% of provide sat with insiders at one level, together with a single multisig with 87% earlier than distribution — numbers that, if sustained, can amplify value affect throughout rebalancing or liquidity elimination.

The mission’s documentation promoted anti-sniping steps — notably deploying 25 contract addresses and randomly designating one as official — however these measures didn’t stop early-access conduct flagged by analysts.

At press time, Solana traded at $185.