Former kickboxing champion and influencer Andrew Tate has taken a heavy hit on his latest crypto gamble, racking up a loss of about $16,000 after shorting Kanye West’s newly launched YZY token, blockchain data shows.
A wallet tied to Tate opened a 3x leveraged short position on trading platform Hyperliquid at $0.85, but the trade quickly turned against him. According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, Tate’s cumulative losses on the account now approach $700,000 after 80 trades, with just 36% proving profitable.
West launched the YZY token on Solana last Thursday. The token initially spiked 1,400% within its first hour of trading, reaching $3 before plunging more than 70% to around $0.77, according to Nansen. Data shows the top 13 wallets collectively booked $24.5 million in profits during the launch frenzy.
Nansen also reported that out of the first 99 addresses to buy YZY, only nine still held the token days later. One trader recorded a realized loss of $1.8 million, while another lost $1.2 million.
Tate’s Track Record in Memecoins
Tate has previously been linked to memecoin controversies. In 2023, insiders were accused of scooping up nearly a third of the supply of his Daddy Tate (DADDY) token before promotion began. More broadly, most of the tokens he endorsed during the Solana memecoin wave of June 2024 — including Roost, Germany Token, Fuck Tristan, TopG, and DADDY — lost more than 99% of their value shortly after launch, according to Bubblemaps.
Blockchain analysts say the YZY launch echoed earlier memecoin pump-and-dump patterns. Bubblemaps linked the token’s first buyer to the same sniper wallet that profited from Donald Trump’s TRUMP coin and suggested an “elite group of coordinated wallets” repeatedly profit from such launches.
Other celebrities including 50 Cent, Caitlyn Jenner, Iggy Azalea and Ronaldinho Gaúcho have also promoted Solana-based tokens, many of which quickly collapsed.
Despite the losses for retail traders, celebrity-backed memecoins continue to draw attention. More than 56,000 wallets have interacted with YZY, and over 27,000 still hold at least $1 worth of the token, according to Dune Analytics.
As for Tate, his losing streak prompted industry figures to weigh in. “Oopsie… fam next time pls don’t let me trade shitters like YZY,” wrote BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes in a post on X.