Kanye West has publicly denied involvement in a fraudulent YZY memecoin promoted through his hacked Instagram account, which briefly surged to a $7 million market cap before collapsing. On August 26, 2025, West took to X (formerly Twitter) to state: "My Instagram has been hacked and it’s following a fake coin… The official project is @YZY_MNY", while sharing a new Solana wallet address for what he claims is the legitimate token.
The fake YZY token, launched on Pump.fun, saw rapid growth driven by social media promotion from influencers and the compromised Instagram account. However, blockchain data revealed that wallet addresses connected to the deployer offloaded large portions of the supply shortly after launch, draining over $24 million in liquidity and leaving the token near $0.
Meanwhile, West's official YZY token, launched on Solana, has faced severe struggles despite his endorsement. It initially reached a fully diluted valuation of nearly $3 billion but has since plummeted 81% to a market cap of just $73 million. The crypto community has expressed widespread skepticism, with commentators like Autism Capital questioning the timing of West's disclosure days after the dumping occurred and his promotion of a "new" official coin.
This incident adds to growing concerns about celebrity-backed memecoins, which often experience extreme volatility and are viewed by critics as speculative vehicles prone to manipulation. Blockchain author David Gerard previously criticized such tokens as "essentially worthless" and designed to benefit insiders at the expense of retail investors.