American rapper and record producer Kanye West has been in the news lately following his surprise appearance at the Grammys 2025. The hip-hop superstar has been actively posting on X, teasing a possible crypto collaboration with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
‘Crypto Yeezy’?
In a February 7 post on X, West shared that he was offered $2 million to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency project in his name. This revelation came amid the series of erratic, abusive, and somewhat disturbing posts made by the 47-year-old singer.
According to the chat screenshot, Kanye West was offered an up-front payment of $750,000 for the promotional contract. The arrangement would also include a subsequent payment of $1.25 million 16 hours after the billionaire rapper posts about the project.
The captured messages showed that West would then be supposed to announce to the public that his X account was hacked and the post was not from him. This scheme was projected to rob unsuspecting fans and crypto community members of “tens of millions of dollars.”
Kanye West mentioned that he refused the offer and cut his work relationship with the individual who proposed it. Despite the abusive and anti-semitic posts that followed this revelation, several members of the online community and crypto projects urged the Hollywood star to launch a coin.
Source: X
Most notably, Solana-based token generation and trading platform Pump.fun responded to one of West’s posts — about “channeling Andrew Tate”, encouraging him to launch his own cryptocurrency. However, Kanye West appears not to be considering the platform for his crypto endeavors.
In a post on X captioned “concerning crypto,” West shared another chat screenshot where he asked an anonymous associate to “resend that crypto connect.” This individual responded with “Brian Armstrong, CEO & Founder of Coinbase,” saying they would ask for the crypto founder’s phone number.
Celebrity Tokens Making A Return In 2025?
Kanye West wouldn’t be the first Hollywood celebrity to launch a token if he were to do so. Notably, rapper Iggy Azalea launched her Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token in May 2024, garnering significant attention at a time when celeb token launches were in fashion.
Other celebrities allegedly involved in token launches in the past year include Davido, French Montana, and Lil Pump. While Kanye West is one of the biggest names in the global music industry and pop culture, his erratic and controversial nature adds an interesting dimension to how investors will approach a token launched in his name.
The total crypto market cap on the daily timeframe | Source: TOTAL chart on TradingView
Featured image from Matt Winkelmeyer, chart from TradingView
