Kanye's token YZY announces the collapse of the celebrity coin myth? No "ordinary" winners among the top 1000 holding addresses, big players run fast but stand guard at the peak

Author: Frank, PANews

The celebrity coin track has stirred up again, as the globally influential yet controversial artist Kanye West suddenly announced the release of his personal MEME token YZY on August 21, which quickly surged to a market value of over $3 billion. Within just a few hours, some profited millions by getting in early, while many others rushed in only to find themselves stuck at the peak.

PANews conducted an analysis of the initial buying and selling of the top 1000 holders of YZY. This time, the issuance of YZY seems to have completely torn apart the illusory link between celebrity coin issuance and wealth stories. Insider trading and bots profited, leaving no "civilian" winners in the celebrity coin game.

Large Holders Entering but Still Stuck at the Peak

From the overall data, the average initial purchase price of the top 1000 YZY holding addresses is about $1.45. A large number of big holders bought in at a price range of approximately $1.8 to $2, with about 44% of them having their initial purchase cost within this range. Perhaps due to being trapped immediately after buying, most of YZY's large holders had not sold any tokens as of August 25; out of 893 addresses that bought in, about 275 sold some tokens, accounting for only around 30%.

From the timing perspective, these large holders did not enter late. Most of them concentrated their purchases on August 21 (the day the token was made public), and the timing was also within one hour after Kanye's announcement. More than half of the addresses bought in within two hours after the token opened.

In terms of capital scale, the average initial investment amount for these large holders is about $285,000. This figure is significantly higher than the average of about $9,696 for the top 1000 addresses of Libra, but much lower than the average purchase of $590,000 for the top 1000 addresses of the TRUMP token at that time. Overall, these large holders have a total holding of about $46.76 million (excluding team holdings), accounting for about 8.5% of the total market value and about 65.3% of the total circulation.

From the selling results, although only a portion of large holders executed sell operations, the data shows that those who exited were mostly selling at a loss. The average initial selling price was $1.19, which represents an average loss of about 18% compared to the average entry price of $1.45. Additionally, the average position sold was far less than the entry, at only $11,800.

From this perspective, the main participants in this YZY event seem to no longer be retail investors, but rather large holders who are keen on celebrity coins. Compared to the previous TRUMP and LIBRA, this time the large holders entered more quickly, all concentrated in the early opening phase. However, the subsequent market acceptance seems insufficient; starting from August 22, although YZY's price had already dropped to below half of the initial price for large holders, only a few large holders chose to enter at this stage.

Insider Trading and Bots as the Harvesting Game

Among them, the largest single purchase was made by the address ANGuXwT18StoX2Ghp3387x6vajPk3sEsxC89LngV5F5r, which spent $200,000 to buy 695,000 tokens within a minute after Kanye announced the address, at an average price of about $0.287. To complete this purchase, the address not only set a 40% slippage but also paid an additional 3.8 SOL to Jtio as a priority fee.

Of course, half an hour later, this address sold for $1.82 million, making a profit of over $1.6 million.

It is worth noting that this address is also considered by the community to be part of an insider group. From the operational behavior, there is indeed a possibility of this; the address was created on August 19 (the same day YZY's token was created) and withdrew about $200,000 in USDT and 49 SOL from Binance. After that, until before YZY went live, this address did not engage in any other MEME coin transactions. Clearly, the creation of this address was intended to ambush the YZY token.

In the sampled statistics, four addresses bought YZY within one minute after the opening. However, there were also skilled bots that rushed in at the opening, such as the address 6xuMV6W6QVxrVmsZxEdLfV6kfhuBsg3ah1X8rydLfQvy, which invested 300 SOL to buy YZY within two minutes after the opening, ultimately profiting about $80,000. From the trading behavior, this address frequently engages in MEME token transactions, having completed over 10,000 transactions to date.

Additionally, according to an investigation released by Bubblemaps, Hayden Davis, who previously planned and targeted celebrity coins like MELANIA and LIBRA, once again took action this time, dispersing funds through multiple centralized exchange addresses and targeting the YZY token immediately, ultimately profiting about $12 million.

The Myth of Celebrity Coins Shattered

In the past year, after Trump issued TRUMP, the issuance track of celebrity coins entered a concentrated issuance period. However, the results show that these celebrity tokens generally experienced declines of over 90%, causing significant harm to investors.

As of now, TRUMP's circulating market value is about $1.65 billion, down about 90% from its peak. The circulating market value of the First Lady token MELANIA is about $148 million, down about 99% from its peak. The token LIBRA issued by the Argentine president has a market value of only $5.4 million, evaporating 99.9% from its peak market value of $4.7 billion. Moreover, the operational trajectories of these tokens all follow the same L-shape, reaching a peak shortly after issuance and then declining without any further fluctuations.

Now, with the issuance of YZY, the number of holding addresses at 27,000 is far less than the previous celebrity coins' popularity. On the other hand, the high cost range of over $1.8 for large holders, combined with the lack of subsequent entrants, makes the difficulty of profiting from early exits exponentially increase. From the candlestick chart, as long as large holders did not rush in within 10 minutes, they were almost all stuck at the highest point, and the decline was rapid, dropping 70% from the peak in just 2 hours. This decline and speed are even more exaggerated than some background-less MEME coins.

YZY Initial Trend Chart

Looking back at the many celebrity coins from TRUMP to YZY, we can clearly see a similar trajectory:

Lightning War and Head Effect: The launch of celebrity coins relies on the immense influence of the celebrities themselves, capable of instantly attracting global attention and funds. This leads to a surge in prices in the early opening phase, creating astonishing profit margins for a very small number of "insiders" or "early runners." They leverage information advantages and technical means to harvest before retail investors enter.

"Large Holders" Taking Over and Retail Investors' Confusion: Unlike ordinary MEME coins, the second wave of main participants in celebrity coins is often wealthy large holders. They may have missed the initial golden minute, but driven by faith in the celebrity effect and a gambler's mentality, they choose to buy in at high prices. However, once the hype cannot be sustained and subsequent funds cannot keep up, these large holders find themselves trapped alongside the retail investors who rushed in.

Value Vacuum and L-shaped Trend: Stripped of the celebrity's halo, these tokens have almost no actual value or application scenarios to support them. When the hype fades, market sentiment cools rapidly, and prices will "free fall," ultimately forming an unsightly "L" shaped candlestick. The myth of soaring prices exists only in the initial few minutes or hours, followed by a long road to value zero. From TRUMP to LIBRA, and now to YZY, this "iron law" has been validated without exception.

The turmoil surrounding YZY once again proves that the celebrity coin track is not a blue ocean of value, but a dangerous casino manipulated by information asymmetry and market sentiment.

In this game, the real winners are always those insiders and capital hunters who can layout in advance and harvest precisely. For the vast majority of ordinary investors, when they see news on social media, they are often already standing at the peak of risk. The rapid rise and sudden cooling of YZY serve as another warning for the frenzied MEME market: under the glow of celebrity halos, what often lurks is an investment abyss that ordinary people find hard to bear.

When the next "Kanye" appears, investors might want to ask themselves first whether they want to become fuel for someone else's wealth myth or choose to stay away from this carnival that is destined for only a few to profit.