Kanye West’s Yzy Token created one of the most talked about moments on the Crypto Market this year.
Its ripple effects are the most visible in Solana’s distributed exchange (DEX) ecosystem.
Meteora attracted attention
According to Defilama data, Yzy’s launch injected Solana with so much liquidity and speculative frenzy, with DEX rising Meteora recording a whopping $1.182 billion on August 21. As a result, Meteora was able to overtake the long-standing leader Raidium as the most active Solana base exchange.
This milestone wasn’t just about volume. Meteora raked in fees of $16.05 million over the same period.
Meteora’s spikes demonstrated how celebrities-driven tokens act as short-term catalysts for trading platforms by driving both activity and revenue in ways that even major Defi protocols rarely achieve. Nevertheless, beneath the surface, Yzy Mania highlights deeper issues regarding celebrity tokens, insider activities and retail vulnerabilities that plague the crypto industry.
Santimento captured the mood well. It revealed that amid rumors of insider dumping that Yzy tokens have skyrocketed to a market capitalization of $3 billion overnight. The hype could not be denied. West’s first foray into Crypto contradicted his own public stance earlier this year.
His reversal encouraged a frenzy as he was drawn to both fans and opportunistic traders, but then the Latecomers nursing a huge loss.
Yzy Rigged?
A dense chain analysis deepened the controversy and revealed how a particular wallet could win a large Yzy allocation for just $0.20, but most traders went in at a higher price.
One such wallet moved the funds into the Treasury wallet after plating a $250,000 buy into a nearly $1 million profit in just eight minutes. The wallet was tied to a suspicious similar profit making strategy that was later used during the firing of the Libra token, causing suspicion of insider adjustments.
In total, these wallets were extracted nearly $23 million across Yzy and Libra by taking advantage of the benefits of early access.
