Kanye West hasn't had a lot of updates as of late when it comes to teased new music, but his other initiatives are raising just as many eyebrows as well. According to AInvest, the mogul just launched a Solana-based cryptocurrency that proved to be a volatile and unpredictable risk for investors.
Reportedly, the "YZY" coin's launch on August 15 of this year, via a social media announcement, is part of the larger "YZY Money" initiative, which also includes Ye Pay and the YZY Card as financial tools. As for the crypto coin itself, its value surged to $3 billion at one point based on peak market capitalization, but it quickly dropped to $349 million.
Kanye West's latest move was reportedly rickety. YZY's initial price did go up in a sharp manner, but it dropped from $3.16 to $0.91 in hours. It followed this trend for the next 24 hours, and hourly price swings as high as 31 percent led to big winners and big losers.
However, other issues such as high supply concentration and the risk for market manipulation became big concerns for traders and investors. Yeezy Investments LLC also boasts the most distributed tokens among these financial groups, which is another factor under fire. Folks familiar with crypto systems also reportedly expressed skepticism over a lack of identifiable industry experts occupying the Yeezy mogul's leadership roles.
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Kanye West Coin
Much like criticism for other celebrity-backed tokens and cryptocurrencies, traders and industry experts called this a "bad risk-reward" ratio whose volatile status indicates unreliable and unlikely long-term success. Still, it launched to much fanfare, which proves there's still an interest in these industries for celebrity involvement. We'll see if the hype cycle lasts or if this is just another subject of pump-and-dump allegations.
Kanye West's no stranger to beef, so we doubt this criticism will shake him in the slightest. Still, we wonder whether or not this will be the only attempt to fully enter the cryptocurrency market. He continues to juggle a lot of different plans and projects, and we all know how inconsistent he can be with sticking to a plan.
