I. Character Collapse: From "Refusing 2 Million Dollars for Justice" to "Retaining 70% of Tokens" - A Magical Reversal
Two weeks ago, Kanye West was still proudly sharing chat screenshots on social media, claiming that someone had tried to tempt him with $2 million to issue a "Rug Pull-style" MEME coin to harvest his fans. He righteously stated: "I'm too rich, I don't need to issue tokens, tokens are just a scam to exploit fans!" This statement not only attracted widespread attention in the crypto community, but was also once seen as a "celebrity sobriety benchmark".
However, a startling reversal suddenly struck. Today, CoinDesk reported that Kanye is quietly preparing to issue his personal token YZY, and the distribution plan is simply jaw-dropping: 70% of the tokens will belong to him personally, only 10% will be used for liquidity, and the remaining 20% will be distributed to investors. In stark contrast to his previous "declaration of justice," netizens mocked: "It's not that he doesn't issue tokens, it's just that he thinks 2 million is too little, and he's going to gobble up 70% anyway!" Even more distressing is that Kanye's team claimed this move is to "avoid the risk of being banned from e-commerce platforms due to controversial remarks," trying to package the token as a "brand savior," but unable to conceal the blatant intention of wealth accumulation.
However, Kanye's current reputation in web2 is also unusually poor, and his business practices and statements have repeatedly sparked controversies, with some being criticized as "harvesting" fans:
- Yeezy Series Limited Releases and Hype: Kanye's Yeezy series collaboration with Adidas is known for its limited releases and high prices. This marketing tactic has led to skyrocketing prices in the secondary market, with some shoes even reaching dozens of times their original price. This hype behavior has raised consumers' doubts about his business ethics.
- Brand Harvesting with Ex-wife Kim Kardashian: The KKW Beauty brand co-launched by Kanye and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian has raised consumer doubts about the quality and pricing of some products in the market. It is believed that this high-pricing strategy may be seen as "harvesting" fans.
II. Analyst Digging: Is the YZY Token Already "Secretly Launched"?
Although Kanye's team has not yet officially announced the token issuance, the crypto detectives have already detected abnormal signs from on-chain data. The well-known analyst @xohryanx published his analysis on the X platform, pointing out that the $YzY token may be a "stealth launch" by Kanye's team. However, after carefully comparing the token's distribution plan with Kanye's previous public statements, the analyst believes that this token may not have been issued by Kanye himself, or at least not fully in line with his previous anti-harvesting stance.
- Abnormal Market Cap Fluctuations: Two days after the $YzY token was launched, its market cap has remained between $600,000 and $1 million, which is quite unusual in the current crypto market. Normally, MEME coins would experience wild price swings, but this token has maintained a relatively stable market cap, which the analyst believes may be the result of artificial price manipulation. It is worth noting that this token was actually deployed on February 18, and had reached a market cap of $4 million twice before the news of Kanye's token issuance. Until today, the highest market cap has reached $10.26M, and the current market cap has fallen back to $2.44M.
- Kanye's "Cold Start" Strategy: @xohryanx mentioned that Kanye has never been fond of high-profile promotion, and he especially won't collaborate with influencers to hype up his own projects. Kanye's "self-centered" style of doing things means that the issuance of this token is likely known to only a few people. If the information leaks, Kanye will most likely immediately cut off contact with these people to avoid the impact of external hype. However, compared to Kanye's previous anti-harvesting stance, the $YzY token distribution plan seems inconsistent with his "declaration of justice." According to the disclosed information, 70% of the tokens will belong to the issuer, and the remaining portion will only be held by a few investors and liquidity providers, which is obviously at odds with Kanye's previous advocacy of "avoiding harvesting." Based on this distribution analysis, the behind-the-scenes manipulator of the token may not be Kanye himself, but his team or other third parties.
- Secretive Holding Structure: The analysis shows that the top 10 holders of the $YzY token only account for 16% of the total issuance, and the largest holding ratio is 1%. The asset status of these holders shows that they have already obtained considerable gains from the token's rise, and they have not chosen to sell at this time. This situation further proves the token's price manipulation characteristics, and there are also no obvious signs of machine-driven volume.
- Timing and Utility: Kanye's Yeezy brand plans to relaunch on February 24, which is exactly one week after the token was launched. This coincidental timing makes one wonder if Kanye is trying to provide a "payment scenario" for the token to increase its practical application value, which undoubtedly injects potential utility into the token.
- Super Bowl Ads and Social Media Impact: @xohryanx believes that Kanye's Super Bowl ads and social media posts seem to have failed to attract enough attention, which may have prompted him to choose to issue a MEME coin to attract more eyeballs and achieve self-promotion. If Kanye really releases a token, it will certainly attract widespread attention.
In summary, @xohryanx believes that Kanye will adopt a rather unconventional way to issue the $YzY token, that is, through a "cold start" to accumulate chips, maintain a certain market stability, and use "mystery" to stimulate market hype. Although this strategy has considerable potential, the token distribution disclosed in the message does not match the actual distribution, so the real issuer of the token may not be Kanye himself. Investors should make cautious decisions and only invest what they can afford to lose.
III. Community Outrage: "Hypocritical Businessman" Attacked Across the Internet, Are Celebrity Coins More Hateful Than VC Coins?
After the news broke, the crypto community was in an uproar, and netizens were furious at Kanye's behavior, denouncing him as "extremely hypocritical." Previously, Kanye righteously refused a $2 million token collaboration, claiming that he disdained using fans to issue tokens for harvesting, winning him a lot of applause. But not long after, he announced the launch of his own exclusive MEME coin YZY, with 70% of the tokens belonging to himself. This reversal has left many people shocked, as netizens said: "Kanye has figured it out, instead of letting others harvest his fans, why not just harvest his own family directly? The previous refusal was not because of a sense of justice, but purely because he thought the earnings were too little!" This transformation has led many to believe that everything Kanye has done is not out of ideals or principles, but naked economic motives.
In this event, the focus of the discussion has centered on the fundamental difference between celebrity coins and VC coins. Although both are highly controlled and low-liquidity tokens, the community's reactions to them are completely different. Compared to VC coins (venture capital coins) harvesting the market through high valuations and low liquidity, the approach of celebrity coins seems more direct and heinous - they exploit the trust of fans to achieve their own economic interests through "harvesting the leeks." According to the voting results, 72.8% of netizens said they hate celebrity coins more, which also exposes the deep-rooted aversion to celebrity coins in the crypto community.
In this comparison between celebrity coins and VC coins, many believe that although VC coins have the risk of manipulation and overvaluation, at least investors can still "rug pull" (earn short-term profits). However, celebrity coins are completely different, where fans ultimately are only "harvested" without any real return. A netizen commented bluntly: "Idiot, this person has been harvesting from web2 to web3? The obvious trend now is that VC coins are about to start, and celebrity coins will be dormant for a while. At least with VC coins, you can still rug pull, but with celebrity coins, only he can rug pull you." This outburst of emotion reflects the crypto market's deep aversion to celebrity effect and speculative behavior. When celebrities view their fans' support as a business opportunity rather than trust, this commercialized operation has clearly crossed the public's bottom line. In summary, regardless of the accuracy of CoinDesk's report, the community has shown strong resentment towards celebrities issuing Meme coins and exploiting Web3 to harvest their fans. Investors need to remain vigilant and avoid blindly following the trend. For the Web3 world, rational thinking and in-depth understanding of the essence of the project are still the best strategies to avoid being "harvested."
