Kanye West, also popularly known as Ye has officially entered the world of cryptocurrency with the launch of a meme coin tied to his Yeezy brand.
Ye, as he is now known, unveiled the YZY coin on the Solana blockchain through a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, on 20 August 2025. Declaring “Yeezy money is here, a new economy, built on chain”, he directed his followers to a dedicated website. The launch was accompanied by a video in which he confirmed, with a straight face, “The official Yeezy token just dropped.”
The website describes the meme coin as a way of putting users in control, free from centralised authority. However, industry insiders have already raised concerns about the concentration of ownership. Reports suggest that Ye holds around 70 percent of the total supply, with only 10 percent allocated for liquidity and 20 percent released for public sale. Before launch, he is said to have requested as much as 80 percent of the supply for himself.
A volatile start
The token debuted at $ 2, quickly surged by more than 6,800 percent, and briefly reached a market capitalisation of $3 billion. But the excitement proved short-lived. Within hours, the price halved and stabilized at roughly $1 per token. Such sharp movements are not unusual for meme coins, which often depend more on hype and celebrity influence than on underlying utility.
Despite this, Ye is pushing forward with broader financial ambitions linked to the Yeezy brand. Alongside the YZY coin, he announced Ye Pay, a crypto payments processor. According to its website, Ye Pay enables merchants to accept both card and crypto transactions at lower fees than the average 3.5 percent charged by traditional platforms.
A YZY Card debit product is also in development, marketed as a non-custodial tool that allows users to spend cryptocurrency directly without converting it into traditional currency. Interested customers can already join a waitlist.
Part of a bigger trend
Ye’s jump into the meme coin venture is part of a larger trend where celebrities are exploring digital assets. From Snoop Dogg to Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber, many celebrities promoted or launched their own collections during the peak of the NFT boom in 2021 and 2022. Although these efforts drew considerable attention and generated short-term profits, many of them later lost significant value, leaving investors with substantial losses.
The 47th US President, Donald Trump, also leaned into blockchain hype. He previously released NFT trading cards that sold out quickly, and more recently introduced his own meme coin. Such efforts highlight how fame and personality branding increasingly merge with speculative online markets.
Critics argue that these celebrity ventures can drive unsustainable spikes in value, exposing inexperienced investors to sharp crashes. The heavy ownership concentration in projects like YZY adds further risk, as large holders can significantly influence prices.