Hayden Davis, the LIBRA token manchild, made a $12M profit sniping Kanye West’s YZY memecoin minutes after launch, putting in question insider trading.
Reports say Hayden Davis, known as Kelsier and the man behind the controversial LIBRA token, made a $12 million profit by sniping Kanye West’s memecoin, YZY.
Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps showed a large group of 14 wallets associated with Davis that purchased YZY tokens a minute after the launch announcement.
Centralized exchanges funded these wallets just before the launch of YZY, raising suspicion of coordinated sniping.
Funds Unfrozen, Snipers Ready: The Perfect Storm
The $57 million in Davis funds that had been locked up were released the day before YZY was given its start. On-chain researchers saw several addresses that received funds out of exchanges to front-run the token.
The fact that the release of the funds and the release of the token happened in close succession is an indication of orchestration.
Source – X
Bubblemaps tracked this activity by following funding transactions, Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) transfers, and shared deposits, all of which led to Davis, aka Kelsier.
Historic Sniping With a Pattern
Hayden Davis is no stranger to high-profile sniping. Earlier, he acknowledged shooting the LIBRA token associated with Argentine president, Javier Milei, which hit the news because of its scandalous rise and fall.
He was also largely involved with the Melania Trump memecoin launch, which crashed in value. Bubblemaps’ recent discoveries indicate that the same actor has coordinated snipes on several token launches, raking in profits using a bot-aided rapid buy immediately after the announcement of public offerings.
Sniping Explained: Bots and Backdoors?
Automated smart contracts or bots snipe in crypto by purchasing large numbers of tokens as soon as they launch. The strategists intend to exploit the price advance before anyone else gets the chance. Davis’s 14 wallets made a total of $12 million in gains from an original investment of approximately $2.8 million.
This occurred as early as 1:54 AM UTC, which is one minute after the release of YZY. Davis’s wallets were involved with the sniping. There is no confirmed connection with the YZY team, but the timing and coordination do raise concerns.
The Wider Implications
The skills of a sniper, beyond doubt, undermine investor confidence and demand greater intensity of regulation.
Bubblemaps presents the blockchain trail with detailed on-chain analytics. These insights demonstrate their value by allowing users to see the risk of market manipulation in real time.