Kanye West's Memecoin: 11 rich, 70,000 screwed
First, the good news: Kanye West hasn't launched a Swasticoin. Yes, you read that right – the rapper, who has repeatedly made headlines with anti-Semitic comments in recent years, did indeed briefly tease a coin with openly right-wing symbolism at the beginning of the year. Fortunately, nothing came of it. Instead, he launched YZY Money last week – a token on Solana that, at least, “only” wiped out the savings of small investors.
A clear trend is now emerging: Anyone who oscillates between populism, provocation, and political megalomania will sooner or later discover the world of memecoins. Donald Trump? Has his own? Javier Milei? He promotes a coin that becomes a suspected rugpull – and impeachment proceedings are already looming. And now Kanye West. It almost seems as if there's a secret workshop in the right-wing camp titled: “How to Launch a Coin and Lose Your Reputation.” Certificates of participation guaranteed on-chain.
YZY Money got off to a picture-perfect start: Within an hour, it briefly shot up to a market capitalization of three billion dollars before the coin plummeted by 80 percent – roughly the same drama as every Kanye press conference since 2018. Eleven wallets became rich, tens of thousands of wallets became poor. $75 million in losses in one week. Welcome to the casino of pop culture. All that's missing is a musical – but we'll definitely get that in 2026 as a Broadway play: “Pump.fun – The Opera.”
On-chain data also points to insider trading. Some wallets were already stocked before the official launch and were able to pocket profits before the rest could even get in. Added to that were so-called “sniping bots” that bought up coins in milliseconds, before the average investor could confirm their order. The result: a market that resembles a post-2016 Kanye album—a few highlights for insiders, chaos for everyone else.
The worst thing that could happen to memecoins?
The fact that Kanye had even considered launching a Swasticoin shows where we've come in the memecoin circus: It's the art of “how far can you go before even the market pukes?” Thankfully, Ye backed down—perhaps the Nazi symbolism was too uncool even for him. Or maybe he realized: An anti-Semitic coin is difficult to list on Coinbase.
Memecoins have long symbolized the worst the crypto sector has to offer: manipulation, scams, and self-enrichment—the (un)holy trinity of Web3 casinos, so to speak. The incubator Pump.fun has long been a breeding ground for racist coins. A kind of “Meme Disneyland”—but without the fun, with swastikas. $500 million was lost there in 2024 alone due to memecoin scams. Or, as they say in the space: Tuesday. The industry's reputation? It's at rock bottom, but hey—at least you can tokenize it.
In short: Memecoins are no longer fun, but the financial equivalent of a reality show. Everyone laughs until the lights come on and they realize their money is gone. After Milei, after Trump, and now Kanye West, the only question that remains is: Who's next? Elon Musk with Doge 2.0? Nigel Farage with BrexitCoin? Or maybe the AfD with a “homeland token”? Please, no.
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