Tate's $700K YZY Loss Exposes Celebrity Crypto Scam Pattern

Andrew Tate, the controversial former kickboxer and influencer, reportedly lost nearly $700,000 from his short position on Kanye West’s YZY token, a Solana-based meme coin launched in early August 2025. A wallet linked to Tate opened a 3x leveraged short at $0.85, and as of early September, the position was sitting on a $16,000 loss, with cumulative losses across the account reaching $699,000. Lookonchain, a blockchain analytics firm, highlighted that Tate’s trading performance was poor, with a win rate of only 36.25% across 80 trades on Hyperliquid, a derivatives platform where the bet was placed [4].

YZY, the token linked to Ye (formerly Kanye West), saw a dramatic price spike of 1,400% within an hour of its launch before plummeting by over 74% in less than 24 hours. At one point, the token reached a peak market cap of $3 billion before crashing back to around $1.00 per token. The launch was marred by allegations of insider trading, with data from Nansen showing that 13 wallets collectively made over $24.5 million by dumping the token. The biggest single loss from the token’s volatility was a wallet that realized a $1.8 million loss, followed by another wallet with a $1.2 million loss [2].

Bubblemaps, another analytics firm, noted that the first buyer of YZY was the same trader who had previously made $100 million from the TRUMP memecoin. This has led to speculation that an “elite group” of snipers, rather than competing, may be coordinating to extract value from celebrity-linked tokens. The same trader was also linked to the controversial LIBRA token, where insiders reportedly extracted tens of millions of dollars using what appeared to be insider knowledge. One analyst described these tokens as tools for transferring wealth from retail investors to a select few, rather than onboarding new users as often claimed [2].

Data from CoinGecko indicated that YZY’s circulating supply is 130 million tokens, with a total supply of 1 billion, giving it a market capitalization of approximately $808.0395 BTC and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $6,215.6879 BTC. The token’s trading volume has shown a 12.40% decline in the last 24 hours, signaling reduced market activity. The token is primarily traded on platforms like Bitget, Toobit, and KuCoin, with the YZY/USDT pair on Bitget accounting for $20.37 million in volume [1].

Tate’s involvement in the token’s market activity has drawn attention given his history with memecoins. He had previously faced allegations of insider trading with his own Daddy Tate (DADDY) token, where 30% of the supply was reportedly hoarded by insiders before promotion began. The pattern of losses following celebrity endorsements is not uncommon, with multiple tokens—such as Roost (ROOST), Germany Token (GER), and Fuck Tristan (FTRISTAN)—also dropping by over 99% after Tate promoted them. These tokens, like YZY, have been accused of having significant insider allocations, raising concerns over the integrity of celebrity-driven crypto projects [4].

The YZY token’s performance is part of a broader trend of volatility in celebrity-backed memecoins, where retail traders often bear the brunt of sharp price drops. As with previous tokens like HAWK, associated with TikTok influencer Haliey Welch, and SMASH, tied to UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev, YZY’s price trajectory has been marked by rapid gains followed by steep declines. These events have fueled growing skepticism around the long-term viability and ethical implications of such projects.

Source: [1] YZY Live Price Chart, Market Cap & News Today (https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/yzy) [2] 13 wallets made over $24M profit dumping the YZY token ... (https://cointelegraph.com/news/yzy-token-bloodbath-sees-coordinated-snipers-extract-millions-from-kanye-fans) [3] Kanye West Officially Launches YZY Meme Coin (https://www.complex.com/music/a/backwoodsaltar/kanye-west-launches-yzy-meme-coin) [4] Andrew Tate Shorts Kanye West's YZY, Nears $700K Loss ... (https://cointelegraph.com/news/andrew-tate-shorts-kanye-west-yzy-700k-loss-hyperliquid)