YZY Token Unlock on August 16: 120.8 Million Tokens Leave the Lock-Up
Kanye West's company holds 70 percent of all YZY. On Sunday it releases part of that to itself. The event has been in the vesting schedule for months and can be worked out, once you know what to look at. A walkthrough using the actual case.
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Investing in cryptocurrencies involves a high level of risk.
On Sunday, August 16, 2026, a lock-up period ends for Kanye West's memecoin YZY. According to matching figures from the data platforms tokenomist.ai and unlocks.app, around 120.8 million tokens become available, worth roughly $35 million. The recipient is Yeezy Investments LLC, the company that already holds 70 percent of all YZY.
The number that puts this in perspective is neither of those two: on August 15, 2026, YZY tokens worth $129,131 changed hands within 24 hours. The value of what leaves the lock-up on Sunday therefore works out to 271 times an ordinary trading day, measured against CoinMarketCap data at 12:55 UTC.
That is no basis for a price call, and you will not find one here. It is the reason why a look at a vesting schedule pays off before you buy a memecoin. The YZY case suits that purpose particularly well, because every figure is public and has been fixed for months.
Key takeaways
- August 16, 2026: the lock-up ends and around 120.8 million YZY become available, according to the data platforms.
- Roughly $35 million is the equivalent value at a price of $0.2898 (CoinMarketCap, August 15, 2026, 12:55 UTC).
- $129,131 was traded in total over the preceding 24 hours. The ratio is 1 to 271.
- 70 percent of the total supply of one billion YZY sits with Yeezy Investments LLC, spread across three tranches.
- 20 percent is public supply, and a further 10 percent is earmarked for liquidity.
- Cliff vesting: the amount unlocks in one go on a set date, rather than gradually over weeks.
What exactly happens to YZY on August 16, 2026
A token unlock is an event in the contract rather than in the market. On a set date, a previously locked amount loses its lock and becomes available to the recipient. Whether the recipient does anything with it is an entirely different question.
For YZY, Sunday affects around 120.8 million tokens. The data platforms both list the event, but they differ in the detail. tokenomist.ai attributes the release to the tranche "Yeezy Investments LLC Vesting 1". In the summaries of several aggregators, by contrast, the amount is split across three tranches: 100 million from Vesting 3, 12.5 million from Vesting 1 and 8.33 million from Vesting 2. That split adds up to exactly the 120.83 million also quoted as the headline figure.
For the purpose of classification the difference does not matter, because all three tranches belong to the same company. For due diligence it does: whoever takes a figure from a data platform also takes on its attribution, and here that attribution is not clear-cut.
Who owns the one billion YZY
The total supply is fixed at one billion tokens and divided into five items. Three of them carry the same name: Yeezy Investments LLC, Vesting 1 with 30 percent, Vesting 2 and Vesting 3 with 20 percent each. Together that comes to 70 percent, or 700 million tokens.
The remaining 30 percent is split between public supply at 20 percent and liquidity at 10 percent. Those 300 million tokens correspond roughly to what CoinMarketCap reported as the circulating supply on August 15, 2026: 302.98 million. The arithmetic checks out, and it shows the structure more clearly than any description could: everything tradable today comes from public supply and liquidity. The company behind the project has released nothing so far.
That is the structural core, and it holds regardless of the price: by far the largest holder decides when its own release happens, and that timing is written into the contract.
Cliff vesting: why a lock-up ends all at once
Vesting schedules come in two basic forms. Under linear vesting, an amount unlocks spread across a period, often daily or monthly in equal parts. The market receives a steady inflow that is easy to model.
Cliff vesting works differently. The amount stays fully locked until a set date and becomes available in a single step on that day. tokenomist.ai explicitly reports this form for the Yeezy tranches. That explains why one single date matters at all: under linear vesting there would be no August 16, only a curve.
For you as a reader, that is the first practical distinction. A project with cliff dates has fixed days on which the available supply changes abruptly. A project with linear vesting does not. Both are set out in the vesting schedule, and both can be inspected before you buy.
The number that counts: release against trading volume
Most reports on token unlocks quote two figures: the amount and its dollar equivalent. On their own, both say little. $35 million is a footnote in a liquid market and something else entirely in a thin one.
That is why the third number is worth having. On August 15, 2026, CoinMarketCap reported a 24-hour trading volume of $129,131 for YZY, against a market capitalisation of $87.8 million. The value of the release therefore sits well above the entire market capitalisation of the circulating supply, and at 271 times what changes hands in a day.
This ratio is the actual information. It describes a relationship rather than an event, and it stays correct however the price moves before Sunday. That is exactly why it is the number you should work out for yourself at every unlock.
Why the data platforms' percentages diverge
This is where it gets awkward, and we are writing it down instead of smoothing it over. Both data platforms put the release at 22.82 and 22.83 percent respectively, with unlocks.app explicitly calling it a share of the circulating supply.
That figure cannot be reconciled with the other numbers from those same platforms. tokenomist.ai gives a circulating supply of 298.96 million tokens, and CoinMarketCap 302.98 million on August 15. Set 120.83 million against those, and you get 40.4 and 39.9 percent respectively, not 22.8. Conversely, a share of 22.82 percent would correspond to around 68.2 million tokens, and at the current price those would be worth just under $20 million, not $35 million.
We were unable to establish the reference base on which the 22.82 percent rests. Anyone with solid information on this is welcome to contact our editorial team. Until then, the calculation that can be checked stands: around 120.8 million tokens against a circulating supply of 302.98 million, which is just under 40 percent.
The lesson is broader than the case: a percentage without a stated reference base is not information. In unlock reports it is the most frequently passed-on figure and at the same time the least frequently verified.
How to read a vesting schedule yourself
The exercise takes a few minutes and works for any token for which a data platform maintains a schedule.
Start with how the total supply is divided. What matters is how much falls to the project itself and its investors, not the number of line items. Where that share exceeds half, supply is governed by a contract rather than by the market.
Then check the form of the release. Set dates carrying large single amounts demand a different kind of attention than an even curve does. After that, look up when the next date falls and how large it is relative to the circulating supply, and work that share out yourself instead of adopting the percentage the platform states.
Finally, the step almost everyone skips: compare the value of the release with the 24-hour trading volume. Only that ratio tells you whether an amount is large for this particular market. How quickly the answer can emerge was on display at Pump.fun during the unlock week in mid-August, and the same logic already underpinned the announced unlock at World Liberty Financial.
What these figures do not say
An unlock is a release, not a sale. Whether Yeezy Investments LLC moves the tokens, holds them or passes some of them on is not known as of August 15, 2026, and it cannot be derived from the vesting schedule. unlocks.app spells out that openness itself and sets both possibilities side by side without committing to either.
We take the same line. The available data would not support a statement about the price, and it would be no more supportable if it were dressed up as a question. What can be said is the relationship between the figures, and that is stated above.
Completeness also requires this: the figures come from data platforms, not from a regulator and not from an audited company document. We have no official statement from Yeezy Investments LLC regarding this date.
If you hold YZY or another memecoin
For existing holders the more important part is tax rather than the date. In Germany, cryptocurrencies held as private assets are subject to the one-year holding period under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act, and with memecoins and their sharp price swings the timing of the sale often decides the outcome more than the entry does. What applies in detail is set out in our overview of the tax rules when selling memecoins. That does not replace tax advice; the position is as of August 15, 2026.
If you are considering trading positions in a market this thin, the choice of venue is the second point. Which providers are authorised in the EU under MiCA, and where the differences in fees and custody lie, is shown in our comparison of crypto exchanges.
What to check at the next token unlock
Three steps, in this order, and they work for any token:
- Check the split. What percentage of the total supply sits with the project and its investors? For YZY it is 70 percent, and that figure is public in the vesting schedule.
- Work out the share yourself. Divide the released amount by the circulating supply and do not adopt the platform's percentage unchecked. For YZY the two values differ by more than 17 percentage points.
- Set it against volume. Put the value of the release in relation to 24-hour trading. At a factor of 271, as here, any statement about the market is incomplete without that number.
Frequently asked questions
What is a token unlock? The end of a contractually agreed lock-up period. A previously locked amount becomes available to its recipients at a set point in time. The event is known in advance and can be inspected on data platforms.
How many YZY become available on August 16, 2026? According to tokenomist.ai and unlocks.app, around 120.8 million tokens, worth roughly $35 million at the price of August 15, 2026. The platforms differ on how the amount is attributed to the individual tranches.
Does an unlock mean the price falls? No. A release is not a sale. Whether and when released tokens are moved is for the recipient alone to decide, and the vesting schedule says nothing about that.
Why do data platforms say 22.8 percent while this article says just under 40? Because 120.8 million tokens divided by the circulating supply of 302.98 million works out to 39.9 percent. Which reference base produces 22.8 percent is not apparent from the platforms' own figures. We therefore quote the calculation that can be followed.
Who owns the released tokens? Yeezy Investments LLC, the company whose three tranches together hold 70 percent of the total supply.
Where do I find a token's vesting schedule? On specialised data platforms such as tokenomist.ai or unlocks.app, and for larger projects additionally in their own documentation. Always check whether the platform discloses its reference bases.
Dates like this one recur: at YZY two further Yeezy tranches holding 40 percent of the total supply between them remain locked, and at numerous other projects the next cliff is already written into the contract. We track these dates continuously and assess them with the same three calculations. All current analyses can be found at cryptoticker.io.
Sources
- tokenomist.ai: YZY tokenomics and vesting schedule (allocation, circulating supply, cliff vesting, accessed on August 15, 2026)
- unlocks.app: Weekly Unlock Digest, August 10 to 16, 2026 (date, equivalent value, share figure, August 10, 2026)
- CoinMarketCap: YZY price, market capitalisation and volume (price $0.2898, volume $129,131, circulating supply 302.98 million, accessed on August 15, 2026 at 12:55 UTC)
(As of August 15, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)
Transparency note: This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. All figures and claims were checked against the primary sources linked in the text. The feature image was generated with AI.
