On August 26, 2025, Ye—formerly known as Kanye West—alerted his 33.1 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) that his Instagram account had been compromised. The artist warned that hackers had manipulated his account to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency, whilst he shared the genuine details of his new Solana-based meme coin, “YZY MONEY”.
Ye clarified to fans: “My Instagram has been hacked and it’s following a fake coin. The official project is @YZY_MNY.” He emphasised the authenticity of the project by furnishing the correct Solana contract address.
This marks Ye’s first legitimate venture into cryptocurrency using his own name and likeness—a notable shift from past involvement. Back in 2014, he famously sued the creators of “Coinye West”, an unauthorised meme coin that had co-opted his likeness. Earlier this year, he shared that he had declined a two million offer to endorse a faux cryptocurrency scheme that would involve claiming a hacked account shortly after promotion.
Despite an impressive debut of nearly three billion in fully diluted value, YZY MONEY experienced a steep 81% decline in market value, resulting in substantial losses for some investors.
Fortunately, Ye appears to have regained control of his Instagram. The suspicious account promoting the fake token no longer appears among his followers, and the illicit posts have been removed.
