Author: Anmol Khatiwada

Kanye West’s YZY token exploded onto the crypto scene this week, delivering a rollercoaster launch that minted instant millionaires while wiping out latecomers.

🚀 $3B Peak Before Collapse
According to Nansen, YZY soared to a staggering $3 billion market capitalization within 40 minutes of launch. By Thursday afternoon, the market cap had fallen to $1.05 billion as insiders began offloading their holdings.

Blockchain tracker Lookonchain flagged issues immediately: YZY’s liquidity pool contained only YZY tokens—no USDC—allowing developers to move liquidity freely, a tactic often seen in celebrity-backed token launches.

💰 Insiders Win Big
One insider wallet (6MNWV8) bought 1.29 million YZY at $0.35 using 450,611 USDC. Within hours, it sold most holdings for $1.39 million, securing more than $1.5 million in profit. Another trader split buys across two wallets, turning 450,000 USDC into $3.4 million, even spending 129 SOL ($24,000) in priority fees to front-run the crowd.

Coinbase’s Conor Grogan noted that 94% of YZY’s supply was initially in insider hands, with one multisig wallet controlling 87% before dispersal.

📉 Whales Take Heavy Losses
Not all players walked away winners. One whale spent 1.55M USDC on YZY at $1.56, selling two hours later for 1.05M USDC, losing nearly $500,000. A leverage trader has already burned $160,000 across failed longs in just one hour.

🌟 Celebrity Hype Drives Demand
Despite risks, hype continues. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes disclosed he bought YZY, while trader James Wynn compared the frenzy to Donald Trump’s memecoin, which quadrupled in under 28 hours.

West, worth $400 million per Forbes, had previously rejected a $2M offer to promote a fake token. His official YZY site warns of the “potential for complete loss.”

The chaotic launch underscores how celebrity-backed tokens can deliver lightning-fast riches—or devastating losses—within hours.

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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins said on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, that only a small percentage of crypto tokens should be considered securities, marking a sharp departure from the agency’s previous position.

Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Atkins explained:

“From the SEC’s perspective, we will plow forward on this idea that just the token itself is not necessarily a security. Very few, in my mind, tokens are securities — but it depends on the package around it and how it’s being sold.”

This stance contrasts with former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who repeatedly argued that the “vast majority” of crypto assets fell under securities law via the Howey test. Gensler resigned in January 2025, with Mark Uyeda serving as Acting Chair before Atkins’ appointment.

📜 Legislative Backdrop
Atkins’ comments come as Congress works to set clearer digital asset rules. In July, the House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which establishes a regulatory framework for U.S. crypto markets.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott recently noted that as many as 18 Democrats could join Republicans in supporting the bill when the Senate reconvenes on September 2, 2025, suggesting broad bipartisan momentum.

⚖️ Project Crypto Initiative
Atkins also referenced the SEC’s Project Crypto, which aims to craft guidelines for blockchain-based trading platforms while balancing investor protection with innovation.

The new approach indicates a friendlier regulatory climate for crypto, giving businesses and investors greater clarity as the U.S. market continues to evolve.

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The Ethereum ecosystem is buzzing with discussions over ERC-8004, a newly proposed standard called Trustless Agents, designed to enable autonomous AI agents to interact seamlessly on Ethereum’s decentralized network.

The proposal was introduced by Davide Crapis of the Ethereum Foundation, who described ERC-8004 as an extension of the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol with a new trust layer. This layer would let AI agents discover, choose, and interact across organizational boundaries without needing pre-existing trust.

“ERC-8004 introduces three lightweight, on-chain registries—Identity, Reputation, and Validation—which provide the skeleton of trust while leaving application-specific logic off-chain,” Crapis explained in a recent Magicians post.

The initiative positions it, not as a place to run AI models directly but as a tamper-proof coordination layer. This contrasts with reliance on centralized providers such as Google APIs or corporate data platforms, which critics argue limit openness and neutrality.

Ethereum insiders believe the standard could power a new machine economy, where millions of autonomous AI agents transact, negotiate, and form DAOs. An Ethereum Foundation contributor, known as Binji, noted: “The specifics can stay offchain, but the skeleton of trust lives on it.”

As the proposal undergoes public review, developers are collaborating with the Linux Foundation and A2A stakeholders to refine its specifications. If adopted, ERC-8004 could become a cornerstone for a decentralized AI economy, blending the growth of blockchain with the rise of autonomous agents.

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