Crypto
crypto
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Kanye West launched a solana-based meme coin that soared before tanking

Artist Kanye West launched a token, YZY, on the meme-coin-friendly solana blockchain, and it reached an eye-popping $3 billion market cap within 40 minutes of its launch, according to on-chain analytics firm Nansen. However, the surge was short-lived and the next 40 minutes saw its market cap drop to $1 billion, roughly where it still stands as of writing. 

The top 500 wallets realized $50.4 million in profits vs. $21.4 million in losses, with the largest realized profit at $3 million and the largest realized loss at $1.3 million, Nansen data shows.

The token is supposedly, per the website, part of a broader “Yeezy Money” ecosystem, “a new economy, built on chain.” This includes Ye Pay, “a crypto payments processor,” and YZY Card, a “debit instrument for spending YZY and USDC at millions of merchants worldwide.” 

The token distribution (or “YZYNOMICS”) includes 20% for the public, 10% for liquidity, and the rest for Yeezy Investments LLC.  

Allegations of insider trading quickly plagued the token, with Lookonchain posting: 

Recently pardoned BitMEX cofounder Arthur Hayes seems to have bought the token, asking West to “please not rug him” on X. Just a few hours later, Hayes posted, “Oopsie… fam next time pls don’t let me trade shitters like $YZY. Should have just kept two-steppin.”

Solana is also the blockchain behind $TRUMP, which is down 21% in the past month. Nansen said that while $TRUMP saw $29.5 billion in volume in the first 24 hours, “$YZY is significantly smaller,” with “$724 million in volume so far.”

In other solana news:

  • Solana is up 3% in the past 24 hours, but failed to cross the $200 mark in the past week and is down 37% from its January 19 all-time high.

  • DeFi Development Corp. acquired 110,000 SOL for $22 million. The company now holds 1,420,173 SOL and SOL equivalents on its balance sheet.

  • Sol Strategies announced this morning that it holds 400,909 SOL in its treasury. “Our validators generate SOL revenue every day. Instead of diluting shareholders, we reinvest it, letting us grow the treasury at a lower cost than buying on the market,” the company said on X.

Acheter-Louer, a French online real estate portal that underwent a solana pivot via its subsidiary Sol Treasury Corp., acquired 711 SOL and now holds 14,905 SOL.

More Crypto

See all Crypto
Sage D. Young
6/5/26
Zcash nosedives after counterfeit vulnerability revealed

The privacy-focused cryptocurrency has dropped more than 40% in the last 24 hours, shedding $3.8 billion in market capitalization.

Zcash coins on blue background.
$62B
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bitcoin digital asset treasuries (DATs) have taken a big hit amid bitcoin’s tumble, shedding $62 billion in value since the asset’s October 6 all-time high, Artemis data shows, with their fully diluted market cap dropping to $72 billion from $134 billion in early October.

Meanwhile, bitcoin, which has fallen below $62,000 on Friday morning, is down 50% from its all-time high. DAT pioneer Strategy’s market cap stood at $102.2 billion on October 6, according to Macro Trends, and is now down to $45.6 billion, a 55% decline. Strategy has been in hot water since it sold 32 bitcoin earlier this week, and because its digital credit instrument, STRC, has been trading below its par value. Shares of Strategy are down 17% in the past week.

crypto
Sage D. Young

“Sentiment for crypto is firmly in the gutter” as sector sinks, with tokens hitting multiyear lows

On Thursday, altcoins swept lower as bitcoin weakened. The tokens with the biggest losses in the last 24 hours are NEAR, ethena, and Zcash, each declining double digits in the period.

Other tokens have dropped to lows not seen in over a year in the past 24 hours:

  • Ethereum dropped 4.4% to under $1,780, a level not seen since April 2025.

  • XRP declined 4.5% to an 18-month low last hit in November 2024.

  • Solana decreased 6% to trade below the $70 mark, its lowest price since December 2023.

  • Dogecoin slid below $0.09, a 27-month low last seen in February 2024.

“Sentiment for crypto is firmly in the gutter as fears surrounding BTC/STRC and its potential overflow compound and overshadow anything that can be read as positive news (e.g. CLARITY movements),” according to Sean Dawson, head of research at crypto options platform Derive.xyz.

“[Altcoins] are high beta plays to BTC and are typically sold heavily in a downturn. Simply put, I’d be even more bearish on alts,” Dawson told Sherwood News.

“Further, liquidity has been drained into this year’s ‘superhot’ narrative of AI/data centers. In other words, there are just better, more exciting opportunities elsewhere,” Dawson added.

One cryptocurrency that has bucked the downtrend has been worldcoin, the native token for World, the digital identity project backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. While the broader crypto market has been pushing lower, WLD has jumped nearly 5% in the last 24 hours and 90% in the past seven days, data from CoinGecko shows.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
6/4/26
Bitcoin nears February lows amid $1.4 billion exiting its ETFs

“This week has been painful in crypto. There is really no other way of putting it.”

Bitcoin Medals Manufactured At Sakamoto Metal
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
6/3/26
Bitcoin tumbles toward $65,000 as crypto may be “forced to go through a painful metamorphosis”

The AI trade is “sucking all the oxygen out of the room,” one analyst wrote.

ITALY-BITCOIN-COMPRO-EURO-CRYPTOCURRENCY

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