Kanye West’s YZY Token Hits $3B Before Crashing

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🎶 YZY token: Kanye pumps, insiders dump?

• 🪐 Wormhole jumps in to block LayerZero’s deal

• 🌏 China eyes yuan stablecoins to rival the dollar

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Kanye West’s YZY Token Launches With ‘Class Action Waiver’

Controversial personality Kanye West is the latest celebrity to launch a crypto token. West’s YZY token debuted on Solana late on Wednesday, and surged 881% in just 10 minutes.

YZY briefly hit a market cap of $3 billion before falling to $1.1 billion shortly after midnight. Onchain wallet tracker Lookonchain highlighted that only YZY was added to the liquidity pool with no USDC, and flagged a risk that the developer could remove all liquidity.

“Multiple insider wallets prepared funds in advance and immediately bought YZY. Insider wallet 6MNWV8 knew the contract address in advance and even tried buying yesterday,” said Lookonchain.

“The multisig funded by the creator of YZY has almost $5M in unclaimed fees and $131M in liquidity. We all know how this is going to end, right?” said Blockworks researcher Fernando Molina on X. 

YZY’s tokenomics allocate 20% of its supply to the public, 10% to liquidity, while Yeezy Investments LLC controls the remaining 70%.

The token’s official documents also include a "class action waiver” clause, meaning users agree not to initiate, join, or participate in any class action lawsuits regarding disputes related to the token.

“If you're buying this ur literally giving them permission to rug you without consequences,” pseudonymous crypto trader Dami noted on X.

Wormhole Foundation to Counter LayerZero’s Bid for Stargate

The Wormhole Foundation, the entity behind the giant cross-chain messaging protocol Wormhole, plans to make a counteroffer against LayerZero's $110 million bid to acquire Stargate.

Wormhole is considered LayerZero’s biggest competitor.

Last week, LayerZero proposed acquiring Stargate, and swapping all Stargate’s STG tokens for LayerZero's ZRO tokens at a fixed ratio of 1 STG to 0.08634 ZRO. On Sunday, LayerZero updated its proposal to include revenue sharing for STG stakers.

The Wormhole Foundation argued that Stargate, with over $4 billion in July bridge volume and wide integration across more than 80 blockchains, merits a much more competitive process.

The foundation highlighted Stargate’s liquid assets of about $92 million and total value locked (TVL) of $345 million, suggesting that LayerZero’s offer undervalues Stargate’s treasury and future revenue potential.

“To make the process fair, we're requesting a 5 business day suspension of the ongoing Snapshot vote,” said the Wormhole Foundation.

The Stargate community’s response to LayerZero’s revised bid was more positive than its original bid, with 88% of STG holders in favor. Still, a significant number of holders remain dissatisfied with the offer and support a more open, competitive bidding process.

“Yea, that's not happening,” said LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino on X.

China Explores Yuan-Backed Stablecoins: Report

China is preparing to enter the global stablecoin race, according to a report from Reuters, as the nation considers the approval and launch of yuan-backed stablecoins — a significant reversal from its strict ban on crypto and related activities since 2021.

The State Council, China’s chief administrative body, will review a roadmap later this month to authorize these stablecoins.

Hong Kong and Shanghai are expected to play starring roles in the rollout. Hong Kong, which recently enacted a Stablecoins Ordinance, will help facilitate offshore issuance, and Shanghai will support domestic trials and set up an international digital yuan center.

The initiative’s ultimate goal will be to strengthen the yuan’s role in international finance and counter the growing dominance of U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins.

This policy shift is also aimed at reducing China’s reliance on the U.S. dollar in global payments. Dollar-pegged stablecoins currently make up the vast majority of the world’s $250 billion-plus stablecoin market, while the yuan’s share in global payments is just under 3%.

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• 🛡️ Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, PayPal, Ripple, and others joined TRM Labs’ Beacon Network with law enforcement to share real-time alerts on suspicious wallets, targeting the $47 billion in fraud-linked crypto flows since 2023.

• 🔗 Binance users poured $250 million in under an hour into Plasma’s Bitcoin-based stablecoin network to earn yield on USDT plus early allocations of Plasma’s upcoming XPL token.

• 📜 The U.S. crypto lobby rallied behind Brian Quintenz for CFTC chair, sending Trump a letter urging quick Senate confirmation after the White House unexpectedly stalled his nomination despite earlier backing.

• 🦅 Senator Cynthia Lummis said a crypto market structure bill that defines SEC and CFTC oversight will be on President Trump’s desk by Thanksgiving, after months of committee reviews and bipartisan negotiations.

• 🇺🇸 Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss donated 188 BTC—worth $21 million—to a pro-Trump PAC to push for crypto-friendly policies ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

• ⚖️ A Manhattan judge unfroze $57.6 million in USDC tied to the failed Libra memecoin, saying the promoters were cooperating in court and unlikely to abscond with funds.

• 📈 Goldman Sachs projected the stablecoin market could swell into the trillions, with Circle’s USDC alone potentially adding $77 billion by 2027 as new U.S. laws fuel adoption.

• 🌐 DBS Bank revealed plans to tokenize structured notes on Ethereum—starting with crypto-linked payouts via ADDX, DigiFT, and HydraX—in a move to draw more institutional investors into digital assets.

• 📊 Kraken expanded its tokenized stock product xStocks—already live on Solana and BNB Chain—to Tron, giving global traders onchain access to shares of Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and more, though without voting rights.

• 🏦 Singapore’s DigiFT raised $11 million in a round led by Japan’s SBI Holdings, bringing total funding to $25 million as it builds tokenized investment products bridging traditional finance and blockchain.

• 🎯 Crypto startup Legion raised $5 million from VanEck, Brevan Howard Digital, and major exchanges to build a regulated platform reviving ICOs, aiming to restore retail token sales without the scams that tainted the model years ago.

1. Ethena: The Stablecoin Pure Play by José Maria Macedo, co-founder of Delphi Labs

2. Bloomberg: Coinbase Bets on The Rise of AI Payments Fueled By Digital Dollars