Kanye is about to issue coins? Cut from web2 to web3

Author: Luke, Mars Finance

1. The collapse of character: the magical reversal from "justice rejects

2 million" to "keep 70% of the tokens in your own right"

Two weeks ago, Kanye West posted a high-profile chat screenshot on social media, claiming that someone tried to lure him to issue "Rug Pull-style" Meme coins for a $2 million reward to harvest fans. He said righteously: "I am too rich and don't need to issue tokens. Tokens are just a scam to take advantage of fans!" As soon as this statement was made, it not only attracted widespread attention in the crypto community, but also once regarded as a "benchmark of celebrity soberness" .

However, an jaw-dropping reversal suddenly hit. Today, CoinDesk revealed that Kanye is quietly preparing to issue personal token YZY, and its distribution plan is simply amazing: 70% of the tokens will belong to him personally, only 10% will be used for liquidity, and the remaining 20% ​​will be used for Distribute to investors. In sharp contrast to the previous "Declaration of Justice", netizens mocked: "It turns out that it is not that you don't issue coins, but that 2 million is too small. Anyway, you have to eat 70% of them all!" What's even more sad is that the Kanye team actually claimed this The purpose of "avoiding the risk of being banned by e-commerce platforms due to controversial remarks", attempting to package the tokens as "brand saviors", but it cannot cover up the naked intention of making money.

However, Kanye's current reputation on web2 is also surprisingly poor, and it has caused controversy over its business behavior and remarks. Some of them have been criticized for "harvest" fans:

• The Yeezy series is limited-edition and hype: The Yeezy series launched by Kanye and Adidas is known for its limited-edition and high-price strategies. This marketing method has led to the price of shoes soaring in the secondary market, and the prices of some shoes have even risen dozens of times the original price. This hype has sparked consumer doubts about their business ethics.
• Brand harvest with ex-wife Kim Kardashian: The KKW Beauty brand jointly launched by Kanye and ex-wife Kim Kardashian, some of which have triggered consumers' doubts about its quality and pricing in the market. Some people believe that this high pricing strategy may be seen as a "harvest" fan behavior.

2. Analysts' findings: Is YZY token "secretly launched"?

Although the Kanye team has not officially announced the token issuance, detectives in the cryptocurrency field have detected signs of abnormality from the on-chain data. Well-known analyst @xohryanx released his own analysis on the X platform, pointing out that the token $YzY may be a "stealth launch" conducted by Kanye's team. However, after carefully comparing the token allocation plan with Kanye’s previous public statement, analysts believe that the token may not have been issued by Kanye himself, at least not fully carried out according to his previous anti-harvest position.

Anomalous market value fluctuations: Two days after the $YzY token was launched, the market value remained between $600,000 and $1 million, which seems very abnormal in the current crypto market. Under normal circumstances, Meme usually experiences surges and plummets, but the token has steadily maintained at a relatively stable market capitalization range, which analysts believe may be the result of artificial control of the market. It is worth noting that this token was actually deployed on February 18, and it had reached a market value of US$4 million twice before Kanye issued the coin news. Until today, the market value has reached 10.26M, and the current market value has fallen back to 2.44M.

Kanye’s “cold start” strategy: @xohryanx mentioned that Kanye has never liked high-profile publicity, especially not hype up his projects by cooperating with insiders or influencers. Kanye's "self-oriented" style of doing things makes it possible that only a few people know about the issuance of this token. If the information is leaked, Kanye is likely to cut off these people immediately, thereby avoiding the influence of external hype. However, compared with Kanye's previous anti-harvest stance, $YzY's token allocation plan seems to be less in line with his "Declaration of Justice". According to the news disclosure, 70% of the tokens will be owned by the issuer, and the remaining part will be held by only a few investors and liquidity providers. Such distribution is obviously inconsistent with Kanye’s previous position of “avoiding harvest”. If analyzed according to this allocation plan, the trader behind the token may not be Kanye himself, but his team or other third parties.

Secret position structure: Analysis shows that the top ten holders of $YzY tokens account for only 16% of the total issuance, while the maximum position ratio is 1%. The asset status of these holders shows that they have gained considerable gains from the token rise, and at this time they have not chosen to sell. This situation further proves the token's control characteristics, and there is no obvious sign of machine brushing.

Time and practicality: Kanye’s Yeezy brand is scheduled to be re-launched on February 24, which happens to be a week after the token is launched. The coincidence point makes people wonder that Kanye may be providing a "payment scenario" for the token to increase the actual application value of the token, which undoubtedly injects potential practicality into the token.

Impact of Super Bowl ads and social media: @xohryanx believes that Kanye doesn't seem to have attracted enough attention through Super Bowl ads and social media tweets, which may prompt him to choose to issue Meme coins in order to attract more and realize self-promotion. If Kanye really releases tokens, it will inevitably attract widespread attention.

Overall, @xohryanx believes that Kanye will use an unconventional way to issue $YzY tokens, that is, accumulate chips through "cold start", maintain a certain market stability, and use "mystery" to stimulate the market. hype enthusiasm. Although this strategy has great potential, from the perspective of token allocation, the token allocation in the outgoing message does not match, so the real issuer of the token may not be Kanye himself. Investors should make cautious decisions and invest only with losses they can bear.

3. Community rage: "Hypocritical businessmen" are besieged by the entire

network, and celebrity coins are more hateful than VC coins?

After the news was exposed, the Crypto community was in an uproar. Netizens were furious about Kanye's behavior and criticized it as "extremely hypocritical." Previously, Kanye righteously refused the $2 million coin issuance cooperation, claiming that he was disdainful of using his fans to send coins to harvest, which won a lot of applause. But not long after, he announced that he would launch his exclusive Meme coin YZY, and 70% of the tokens would belong to him. This reversal shocked many people, as netizens said: "Kan Ye figured it out. Instead of letting others harvest their fans, why not directly harvest their families? The last time I refused was not because of my integrity, it was purely It’s because I think I’ve made too little money!” This change has made many people believe that everything Kanye does is not out of ideals or principles, but has naked economic motivation.

In this incident, the focus of the discussion is on the essential difference between celebrity coins and VC coins. Although both are highly controlled and low circulation tokens, the community responds completely differently to them. Compared with VC coins (VC coins) that harvest the market through high valuation and low liquidity, the way of celebrity coins seems more direct and bad - it uses the trust of fans to realize its own economic benefits by "cutting leeks". According to the vote results, 72.8% of netizens said that they hate celebrity coins more, which also reveals the deep disgust of celebrity coins in the crypto community.

In this comparison between celebrity coins and VC coins, many people believe that although VC coins have the risks of manipulation and overvalued valuation, at least investors can also "fight" (earn short-term profits). However, Celebrity Coins are very different, and fans end up being just "harvested" without any real rewards. Some netizens said bluntly in the comments: "Idiot, this person cuts from web2 to web3? The obvious trend now is that VC coins are about to start, and celebrity coins will be silent for a while. If you don't buy VC coins, you can still get fucked. He is the only celebrity coins. Rush yours."

This emotional outbreak reflects the crypto market's deep disgust of star effects and speculative behavior. This commercialization has clearly violated the public's bottom line when celebrities view fans' support as business opportunities rather than trust.

summary

Regardless of whether CoinDesk's coverage is accurate or not, the community has shown strong resentment to celebrities' practice of issuing Meme coins and leveraging Web3 to harvest fans. Investors need to remain vigilant and avoid blindly following the trend. For the Web3 world, rational thinking and in-depth understanding of the nature of the project are still the best strategies to avoid being "cut off the leeks".