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West

Cal Raleigh hits 59th, 60th home runs as Mariners clinch AL West

by admin September 25, 2025

Sep 24, 2025, 11:21 PM ET

SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh hit his MLB-leading 59th and 60th home runs Wednesday night as the Seattle Mariners clinched the AL West with a 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.

His 59th was a solo shot in the first inning and his 60th was another solo homer in the eighth.

The Mariners, the lone big league team that has never been to a World Series, clinched the fourth division crown in the franchise’s 49-year history and the first since 2001, when they set an AL record with 116 wins.

“To do it in this fashion, on this night, in front of these fans, mom and dad, obviously, was really cool,” Raleigh said.

He added: “It’s 20-plus years since we’ve done something like this, and it’s special. It’s special to this group, to this organization, to the city.”

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Raleigh, batting left-handed, connected off Tanner Gordon in the first inning for a blast to right field that reached the top deck at T-Mobile Park. In the eighth inning, Raleigh, batting left-handed again, connected off Angel Chivilli.

Raleigh has 11 multi-homer games this season, tied with Aaron Judge (2022), Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sammy Sosa for the MLB record.

With four games remaining in the Mariners’ regular season, Raleigh has a chance to pass New York Yankees star Judge for the American League single-season home run record. Judge hit 62 home runs in 2022 to break the previous record set by Roger Maris, which had stood since 1961.

Raleigh’s latest homers came just four days after he passed Ken Griffey Jr. for the franchise’s single-season home run record with his 57th homer. Griffey hit 56 in 1997 and 1998.

Raleigh also has surpassed Mickey Mantle’s previous MLB record of 54 home runs by a switch-hitter that had stood since 1961. He set the MLB record for homers by a catcher this season, eclipsing the 48 hit by Salvador Perez in 2021.

Raleigh is four home runs ahead of Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber and seven home runs ahead of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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September 25, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Mariners clinch playoff berth, close in on AL West title

by admin September 24, 2025

Alden GonzalezSep 24, 2025, 02:16 AM ET
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SEATTLE — In the end, when they needed a big hit, it was Josh Naylor, the man who brought such a noticeable edge to this surging Seattle Mariners team over these past two months, who delivered it.

His eighth-inning, bases-loaded three-run double Tuesday night triggered a 4-3, come-from-behind victory over the Colorado Rockies, sent the Mariners back into the postseason and put them on the cusp of a long-awaited division title. The last time the Mariners won the American League West, it was 2001, a year highlighted by 116 regular-season wins. That can change as early as Wednesday, with either another win by them or another loss by the Houston Astros.

But first, the Mariners celebrated their first postseason clinch since 2022 — and hoped for many more.

“We wanna do all of ’em — and a big one in the end,” Naylor said, puffing on a cigar just steps away from a champagne-and-beer celebration in the middle of the Mariners’ clubhouse. “With a nice parade around the city.”

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Seattle remains the only current major league city that has yet to host a World Series game, but this season’s team is continually inspiring hope for October.

Tuesday’s win was the Mariners’ fifth in a row and 15th in a stretch of 16 games — immediately following a 6-15 stretch that made fans wonder if their team was poised for another late-season slide. It followed a resounding sweep in Houston, one in which the Mariners never trailed. And it has them thinking their best might be ahead of them.

The Mariners’ vaunted rotation — minus Bryan Woo, nursing a pectoral injury the team hopes won’t keep him out of the playoffs — is dominating again as so many expected at the start of the season. Their lineup, bolstered by the midseason additions of Naylor and fellow corner infielder Eugenio Suarez, is producing. Their bullpen looks lethal. In a year when practically every team possesses glaring weaknesses and has navigated tough stretches, the Mariners are making a case for being the most complete.

“There is a lot of work to do, starting with the division,” said Dan Wilson, a longtime Mariners catcher in his first full season as their manager. “Hopefully we get that done sooner than later and we keep going. But there’s a lot ahead of us. And this team I think is ready and primed for it.”

The Mariners won 90 games and snuck into the playoffs, ending a 21-year drought, in 2022. They followed by winning back-to-back games in Toronto during the wild-card round but lost three consecutive heart-wrenching ones to the Astros in the division series, the last one an 18-inning shutout. In 2023, they flamed out in September and were eliminated on the penultimate day of the regular season. In 2024, they blew a 10-game lead in the division and were eliminated with three games left.

“These last two years have felt really long,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh said. “Not going back, it’s been hurtful. A lot of pain.”

That struggle, some of the players believe, helped produce this moment.

“Those years served its purpose — to get us stronger,” Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez said. “To get us in a better position. To grow.”

Raleigh at one point put his arm around Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president of baseball operations, lamented how they had just played eight innings of bad baseball, then shifted the focus. “Let’s go win the World Series,” Raleigh recalled saying.

“We wanna do all of ’em — and a big one in the end,” Josh Naylor said as the Mariners celebrated their first postseason clinch since 2022. “With a nice parade around the city.” Steph Chambers/Getty Images

For seven innings, the Mariners’ offense lagged against a Rockies pitching staff that possesses the highest ERA in the major leagues. They trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth, but Rockies reliever Juan Mejia started the inning by plunking Luke Raley. J.P. Crawford followed with a walk, but Randy Arozarena and Raleigh struck out. Rodriguez then took a 1-2, 97.5 mph fastball off his left elbow guard, to load the bases.

Three pitches later, Naylor — slashing .292/.333/.486 since being acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 24, seven days before Suarez also came over from the D-backs — sent a 2-0 fastball into the left-center-field gap, scoring Rodriguez from first base.

“It felt like two seconds,” Rodriguez said. “It felt like two seconds for me, honestly. As soon as I saw him hit the ball in the gap, I just started running.”

Andres Munoz, the Mariners’ lights-out closer, breezed through the ninth, sending a T-Mobile Park crowd of 35,925 into jubilation. The Mariners improved to 49-27 at home. Their lead over the Astros has stretched to four games with five left. Their lead over the surging Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers, suddenly tied in the AL Central, is at three games for a first-round bye.

It has been nearly a quarter century since the Mariners won a playoff game at home.

They want as many as they can get this year.

“We want to play at home,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t want to leave my neighborhood to play.”

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September 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Creators of Reigns, Streets of Rage and Saturnalia launch Palestinian Voices in Gaming to support indies from Gaza and the West Bank

by admin September 19, 2025

A group of game industry folks including Reigns studio Nerial, Saturnalia creators Santa Ragione and Streets Of Rage 4 outfit Lizardcube have launched Palestinian Voices in Gaming, an international volunteer network to support current and emerging independent Palestinian developers.

First convened in May 2024, the network are currently looking to connect Palestinian game devs with volunteers and funding partners. They’ll provide administrative help to any developer trying to get access to funding, and assistance managing resources and volunteer contributions, once secured. They aim to follow and boost each project from “production to announcement to publication”, and are already working with a range of smaller independent games, many of which explore recollections of pain and loss through speculative fiction and fantasy.

Dreams on a Pillow | Image credit: Rasheed Abu-Eideh

As you might expect, the network is a response to Israel’s on-going mass killing and dispossession of Palestinians in Gaza, which has now formally been defined as a genocide by a UN inquiry, together with the long-term killing, oppression and mistreatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and inside Israel’s own borders.

“The dehumanisation of Palestinians is tied to their rare visibility in the cultural sphere,” the organisers note on their website. “This dehumanisation costs lives – as the world remains indifferent to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to the surge of violent oppression across the West Bank and inside Israel.

“We want to push against the dehumanisation of Palestinians, not simply through representation but also through professional and economic support, so that Palestinian game developers may tell their own stories and reach global audiences.”

Being 2 | Image credit: Iasmin Omar Ata / Delta

Among the Palestinian game developers PVG are working with is Iasmin Omar Ata, whose forthcoming sci-fi adventure novel Being 2 is set in a Palestinian space colony. “You would have to fix the space colony during a black out, which would lead to flashbacks/hallucinations allowing to see past memories of Palestine,” reads a summary from the developer’s portfolio.

Another partner developer, Yusra, is working on RiYafa (pictured in this article’s header), an underwater experience “that combines testimony and symbolism to tell the story of her family and community based in the West Bank”, in the words of a press release.

Yasmine Batniji’s Pomegranates is also set in the future. “Travel to the year 2048 and play as a memory keeper in the reclaimed and rebuilt Gaza City,” reads the summary. “You will be tasked with tracing echoes of the current war at the renovated Al-Ahli hospital.” You can find a version of it on Itch.io.

Image credit: Yasmine Batniji / Gabbah Baya

Lastly, there’s Rasheed Abueideh, creator of Liyla and the Shadows of War and the forthcoming Dreams on a Pillow. Nic interviewed Abueideh about the latter game last year – amongst other things, they discussed the absence of support structures for Palestinian game developers in the occupied West Bank. “You need to experiment many things, and you have to make many iterations to reach something that is beautiful and people can actually enjoy,” Abueideh told Nic. “And to do this, you need an ecosystem that helps you.”

If you’d like to apply for support from the network, you can do so via this form. If you’d like to sign up as a volunteer, you can do so here.

The games industry at large has a… complicated relationship with Palestine. While many large publishers halted game sales in Russia following the outbreak of a murderous invasion of Ukraine, there hasn’t been a similar wave of divestment from Israel, even given some well-supported accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

In particular, Microsoft and Xbox are the subject of a boycott in response to their alleged collaborations with the Israeli military to surveil and target Palestinians using cloud technology and generative AI. Nic and I recently interviewed a number of people participating in the boycott, amongst them a former Microsoft developer who called attention to Microsoft’s “double standard” toward internal discussion of Israel and Palestine. Microsoft declined to comment on this allegation when approached by RPS.

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September 19, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Premier League Soccer: Livestream West Ham vs. Tottenham From Anywhere

by admin September 14, 2025

73% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months). Now only $3.49/month

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See at Now

Watch the Premier League in the UK from £15 with Now

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See at Fubo

Watch the Premier League in Canada for CA$31.50 a month

Fubo Canada

See at Stan Sport

Watch every Premier League match live in Australia from AU$32 a month

Stan Sport

A pulsating London derby looks in store on Saturday as a rejuvenated West Ham take on capital rivals Tottenham in Stratford.

Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services for watching English Premier League games as they happen, wherever you are in the world, and how to use a VPN if it’s not available where you are.

After a worrying start to the season, which led to serious questions about manager Graham Potter’s future, the Hammers bounced back in style by claiming an impressive 3-0 away win at Nottingham Forest in their final fixture before the international break.

Conversely, Tottenham’s strong start to the new EPL campaign was undermined by a frustrating 1-0 loss to AFC Bournemouth last time out. The Cherries inflicted Thomas Frank’s first Premier League defeat as Spurs boss.

West Ham United takes on Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the London Stadium, with kickoff set for 5:30 p.m. BST. That makes it a 12:30 p.m. ET or 9:30 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada, and a 2:30 a.m. AEST kickoff in Australia on Sunday morning.

Spurs forward Mohammed Kudus will likely get a hostile reception at West Ham following his $75 million move from the London Stadium in the summer.

Julian Finney/Getty Images

How to watch West Ham vs. Tottenham in the US without cable

This match at the London Stadium will be broadcast on NBC and streaming service Peacock. To stream the game live, you’ll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account.

Peacock offers two Premium plans, and after recent price increases, the ad-supported Premium plan costs $11 a month, and the ad-free Premium Plus plan costs $17 a month.

How to watch the English Premier League 2025-26 season from anywhere with a VPN

If you’re traveling abroad and want to keep up with all the EPL action while away from home, a VPN can help enhance your privacy and security when streaming.

It encrypts your traffic and prevents your internet service provider from throttling your speeds, and can also be helpful when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks while traveling, adding an extra layer of protection for your devices and logins. VPNs are legal in many countries, including the US and Canada, and can be used for legitimate purposes such as improving online privacy and security.

However, some streaming services may have policies restricting VPN use to access region-specific content. If you’re considering a VPN for streaming, check the platform’s terms of service to ensure compliance.

If you choose to use a VPN, follow the provider’s installation instructions, ensuring you’re connected securely and in compliance with applicable laws and service agreements. Some streaming platforms may block access when a VPN is detected, so verifying if your streaming subscription allows VPN usage is crucial.

James Martin/CNET

Price $13 per month, $75 for the first year or $98 total for the first two years (one- and two-year plans renew at $100 per year)Latest Tests No DNS leaks detected, 18% speed loss in 2025 testsNetwork 3,000 plus servers in 105 countriesJurisdiction British Virgin Islands

ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. Prices start at $3.49 a month on a two-year plan for the service’s Basic tier.

Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

73% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months). Now only $3.49/month

Livestream West Ham vs. Spurs in the UK

This clash at the London Stadium is exclusive to Sky Sports and will be shown on its Sky Sports Main Event and UHD channels. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its Sky Go app. Cord-cutters will want to set up a Now account and a Now Sports membership to stream the game.

Now TV

Sky’s standalone streaming service Now offers access to Sky Sports channels with a Now Sports membership. You can get a day of access for £15 or sign up to a monthly plan from £35 a month right now.

Livestream West Ham vs. Tottenham in Canada

If you want to livestream EPL games in Canada this season, you’ll need to subscribe to Fubo. The service has exclusive rights to the Premier League once again and is broadcasting all 380 matches live.

Fubo

Fubo is the go-to destination for Canadians looking to watch the EPL, with exclusive streaming rights to every match. It currently costs CA$27 for the first month, then CA$31.50 a month from then on.

Livestream West Ham vs. Tottenham in Australia

Livestreaming rights for the EPL are now with Stan Sport, which is showing all 380 fixtures live, including this match.

Stan

Stan Sport will set you back AU$20 a month (on top of a Stan subscription, which starts at AU$12). It’s also worth noting that the streaming service is currently offering a seven-day free trial.

A subscription will also give you access to Premier League, Champions League and Europa League action, as well as international rugby and Formula E.

Quick tips for streaming the Premier League using a VPN

With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — your experience and success when streaming EPL matches may vary.
If you don’t see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the “search for city or country” option.
If you’re having trouble getting the game after you’ve turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log in to your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs — like Roku — don’t have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you’ll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you’re using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.
All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network’s sports app, you’ll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, since both devices will appear to be in the correct location.
And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you’re using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommend Brave.

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September 14, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Justin Herbert shines as Chargers earn AFC West win in Sao Paulo

by admin September 6, 2025

Kris Rhim
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Kris Rhim
ESPN
Nate Taylor

Sep 5, 2025, 11:24 PM ET

SÃO PAULO — Since Patrick Mahomes became a starter in 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs have beaten up on much of the NFL, and perhaps no team understands what that dominance has felt like more than the Chargers. The Chargers went into Friday night’s game at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo on a seven-game losing streak to Kansas City and are 3-19 in their past 22 games against the Chiefs.

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It wasn’t always a beatdown for the Chargers, and the games were often decided in the final minutes — or seconds — but in the end, the Chiefs were on top more often than not.

The paradigm shifted Friday night.

Quarterback Justin Herbert scrambled for 19 yards on 3rd-and-14 in the fourth quarter to effectively end the football game and send his teammates into a celebrating frenzy. Herbert and the Chargers offense picked apart the Chiefs’ defense all night with ease, and the Chargers defense slowed Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense just enough to edge out a 27-21 victory.

Here are the most important things to know from Friday night for both teams:

Los Angeles Chargers (1-0)

What to make of the QB performance: This is a much different Herbert than we saw early last season. It wasn’t until Week 6 last season that Herbert had a game for over 200 yards, and he didn’t hit 300 until Week 7. Herbert hit the latter total Friday night, finishing with 318 yards and three touchdowns. It was Herbert’s first 300-yard passing, three-touchdown game since Week 10 against the Detroit Lions in 2023. Friday night’s performance reflected an improved wide receiving core and a vote of confidence for offensive coordinator Greg Roman, playing to Herbert’s strengths.

AP Photo/Doug Benc

Trend to watch: Mekhi Becton’s health: The Chargers right guard, L.A.’s top free agent signing, appeared to be exhausted throughout Friday’s game. Becton missed snaps throughout the contest while getting oxygen on the sideline. Becton missed three weeks of training camp practice with an undisclosed injury and came into Friday’s game questionable with an illness.

Stat to know: Keenan Allen became the third Charger with 60 touchdowns in franchise history. This is a milestone that just a year ago seemed like it would never happen, as the Chargers traded Allen to the Chicago Bears following a contract dispute. Allen ran an out route Friday night that left him wide open in the end zone late in the third quarter for an 11-yard touchdown catch. — Kris Rhim

Next game: at Las Vegas Raiders (10 p.m. ET, Sept. 15)

Kansas City Chiefs (0-1)

Even when the circumstances were dire, Mahomes still created magic, finding receiver Hollywood Brown for a 49-yard completion on fourth-and-7 with less than four minutes remaining. Kansas City stayed alive with a field goal to cut the deficit to 27-21 but could not get a stop when it mattered on the subsequent possession.

The loss was the Chiefs’ first regular-season defeat abroad. Prior to Friday, the Chiefs were undefeated in international games under coach Andy Reid, winning contests in London, Mexico City and Frankfurt, Germany.

What to make of the QB performance: In the second half, Mahomes was once again asked to put on a superhero performance. Without Xavier Worthy, who left early with an injury, Mahomes used every bit of moxie and determination to give the Chiefs an opportunity in the fourth quarter. Mahomes’ second-half performance — finishing with 160 passing yards and another 42 yards on the ground — ignited the Chiefs’ offense after a lackluster start.

In the third quarter, safety Derwin James Jr. was an unblocked blitzer and applied immediate pressure on Mahomes, who was forced to scramble up into the pocket. After James attempted to make a shoestring tackle in the middle of the pocket, Mahomes had the presence of mind — while his body was parallel to the turf — to flip the ball forward to receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster for a critical conversion on third-and-5 near midfield. Mahomes finished the drive with a perfect intermediate pass to right end Travis Kelce, who scored on an easy 37-yard touchdown reception.

Jean Carniel/Reuters via Imagn Images

Turning point: With 12 minutes left, the Chiefs appeared to have momentum following the second consecutive touchdown drive. All the Chiefs defense needed to do was get one stop to give Mahomes a chance to lead his team to a game-winning drive. Instead, the Chargers took seven minutes off the clock with a methodical, 11-play drive where Herbert completed all eight of his passes, many of them in the middle of the field. The reason was simple: Herbert and his two best receivers, Ladd McConkey and Keenan Allen, exploited the Chiefs’ poor play from safeties Chamarri Conner and Jaden Hicks. Herbert finished the Chargers’ possession with a 23-yard touchdown strike to receiver Quentin Johnston, who beat Hicks on a one-on-one matchup. The score gave the Chargers a 27-18 lead from which Kansas City could not recover.

Stat to know: Entering Friday’s game, the Chiefs had won 17 consecutive one-score games, a league record. Herbert was excellent in the second half, allowing the Chargers to keep their lead despite Mahomes’ rallying efforts. In the second half, Herbert completed 13 of his 16 pass attempts for 147 yards and two touchdowns. The Chiefs blitzed Herbert often, sacking him twice, but the quarterback sealed the victory for the Chargers when he scrambled to his right for a 19-yard gain on a third-and-14 snap just before the two-minute warning. — Nate Taylor

Next game: vs. Philadelphia Eagles (4:25 p.m. ET, Sept. 14)

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September 6, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Kanye West Said Memecoins ‘Prey On Fans.’ Then He Apparently Launched One

by admin August 22, 2025

Kanye West, the hip-hop artist who goes by Ye, appears to have launched his own cryptocurrency, YZY, sparking a riot of trading activity.

In February, West rejected the idea that he might launch a crypto coin. “I’M NOT DOING A COIN,” he wrote, in a since-deleted post on X. “COINS PREY ON THE FANS WITH HYPE.” He seems to have changed his mind.

On Wednesday evening, West’s X account announced the YZY coin in two posts. “The official Yeezy token just dropped,” said West, in a strangely deadpan video clip that some X users speculated was AI-generated.

As traders piled in, the coin’s paper value surged to $3 billion, then plummeted by two-thirds in the span of three hours as early investors cashed out. Since the start of trading, investors have placed more than $740 million worth of trades. The majority of traders have recorded losses, collectively losing more than $20 million, says blockchain analytics company Nansen.

Winner of more than 20 Grammy Awards, West has become increasingly unmoored and erratic in his behavior in recent years. Most infamously, West made a series of antisemitic remarks in 2022 that drew widespread condemnation and led Adidas to abandon a lucrative partnership with his design label. In May, he released a music video entitled “Heil Hitler.”

The YZY coin is supposedly part of a grander constellation of products called YZY Money, which also purports to include a crypto payments service and debit card. “YZY Money is a concept to put you in control, free from centralized authority,” the website claims.

According to the website, 20 percent of the YZY supply has been released, 10 percent has been pooled on exchanges to allow for smooth trading, while the remaining 70 percent is held by Yeezy Investments LLC. The company cannot gain access to those coins for at least three months, a common practice meant to prevent issuers from dumping their holdings and sinking the price of a coin.

It is unclear who controls Yeezy Investments, which is registered in Delaware and therefore not required to disclose its ownership structure. Yeezy Investments operates the YZY Money website under a licence granted by Ox Paha Inc., a company through which West manages his intellectual property, the terms and conditions state.

Typically, rookie crypto traders are warned away from coins whose supply is concentrated in the hands of a small number of parties, for fear they might sell off their holdings en masse, driving down the price of the coin.

“You have to consider longer down the line,” says Nicolai Søndergaard, research analyst at Nansen. “Let’s say all tokens unlock in two years, you might not want to be in a token at that point. You could fairly assume there would be a sell-off.”

Patterns in the trading activity in the minutes after the YZY coin announcement have led to further questions about the integrity of the launch.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Kanye West Launches YZY Token, Sparks Trend Across Crypto Industry

by admin August 21, 2025

Popular rapper Kanye West has launched a new memecoin called YZY earlier today and it has taken over the crypto industry by a storm. Deployed on Solana, YZY token is currently talk of the town with the rapper describing project as the start of a “new economy, built on chain.”

The launch drew swift attention from investors with YZY’s valuation climbing as high as $3.2 billion at its peak before cooling to around $1.3 billion. These sharp moves showed how quickly celebrity-backed tokens can rise and fall.

Source: X

Building a New Economy with YZY Money

YZY token is positioned as the base of YZY Money project. Its ecosystem includes Ye Pay, a crypto payment service, and YZY Card, a global spending tool that works with both YZY and USD Coin. The project calls itself the start of “a new economy” built on-chain. It focuses on payments, commerce, and wider use of digital assets.

The token will be shared through public allocations and liquidity reserves. A portion is locked in long-term vesting under Yeezy Investments LLC to show commitment and transparency. Its vesting is carried out on-chain through Jupiter Lock, an audited protocol on Solana.

The launch also introduced an anti-sniping method, with the team deployed 25 contract addresses and picked one at random as the official YZY token. It was meant to block bots and give retail buyers a fair chance.

Suspicious Trading Movements on YZY Meme Coin

Analysts at Lookonchain highlighted wallets that seemed to know the real contract in advance. One wallet bought YZY before launch and later sold most of its holdings for a profit of more than $1.5 million, raising doubts about equal access.

YZY can be traded on Meteora on Solana. Early trading showed sharp price swings, underlining both excitement and risk. YZY shows how a celebrity launch can draw instant market attention. Its lasting value, however, will depend on Ye’s ability to deliver real payment and commerce tools beyond the early hype.

Also Read: Sonic Labs Proposes Token Issuance to Enter U.S. TradFi Markets

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Kanye West Launches Token on Solana in Frenzied Debut

by admin August 21, 2025

In brief

YZY surged to a multibillion-dollar valuation within an hour of launch before tumbling.
The token is framed as part of a broader “YZY Money” payments ecosystem.
On-chain data shows 70% of supply sits in a single wallet, raising centralization concerns.

Hip-hop artist Kanye West has made his first direct move into crypto with YZY, a Solana-based token promoted late Wednesday night on his verified X account.

“A new economy, built on chain,” West’s account posted on the social media platform, describing the project. A video of West confirming “the official Yeezy token” drop was released an hour later.

West has spoken about Bitcoin before and once sued to shut down the unauthorized “Coinye” token.YZY is the first coin he has formally launched under his own name and brand. Earlier in March, West pivoted to crypto and teased the possibility of dropping a meme coin.

His announcement has triggered a buying surge that quickly pushed the coin’s market capitalization to more than $3 billion less than an hour after it went live, before drastically dropping to less than $1 billion, according to on-chain data from Birdeye.

While YZY is clocking a 375% rise over the last 24 hours, the token is down more than 34% in the past hour to $0.99, data shows.

The token was quickly listed on platforms including CoinMarketCap and Bitget, with Poloniex announcing support shortly after.

Trading volumes on Solana decentralized exchanges spiked, cementing YZY as one of the largest and most visible celebrity-linked coins to debut yet, eclipsing that of other launches such as TRUMP, MOTHER, and LIBRA.

Framed as part of a broader “YZY Money” ecosystem, its website describes the token as part of “a new financial system, built on crypto rails,” with YZY positioned as the native cryptocurrency of a broader ecosystem.

The website describes YZY as more than a meme coin and goes on to describe Ye Pay, a proposed payment processor aimed at reducing merchant fees, and the YZY Card, pitched as a global spending tool for YZY and USDC.

The project claims the token would support loyalty programs, retail use, and peer-to-peer transfers, but no timeline or technical details were provided.

While the site disclosed the Solana contract address and liquidity pool, questions remain about governance, compliance, and whether these features will be delivered.

West’s representatives under the Yeezy brand did not immediately return Decrypt’s request for comments on those aspects.

Bubblemaps data shows a single wallet controls about 70% of the token’s total one-billion supply, with public allocations reported at just 20% and the remainder vested under Yeezy Investments LLC, spurring concerns over centralization risks.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

The West Texas Measles Outbreak Has Ended

by admin August 19, 2025

A large measles outbreak in Texas that has affected 762 people has now ended, according to an announcement Monday by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The agency says it has been more than 42 days since a new case was reported in any of the counties that previously showed evidence of ongoing transmission.

The outbreak has contributed to the worst year for measles cases in the United States in more than 30 years. As of August 5, the most recent update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 1,356 confirmed measles cases have been reported across the country this year. For comparison, there were just 285 measles cases in 2024.

The Texas outbreak began in January in a rural Mennonite community with low vaccination rates. More than two-thirds of the state’s reported cases were in children, and two children in Texas died of the virus. Both were unvaccinated and had no known underlying conditions. Over the course of the outbreak, a total of 99 people were hospitalized, representing 13 percent of cases.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory illness that can temporarily weaken the immune system, leaving individuals vulnerable to secondary infections such as pneumonia. In rare cases, it can also lead to swelling of the brain and long-term neurological damage. It can also cause pregnancy complications, such as premature birth and babies with low birth weight. The best way to prevent the disease is the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. One dose of the vaccine is 93 percent effective against measles while two doses is 97 percent effective.

A measles outbreak is considered over after 42 days if no new cases are discovered because it is double the disease’s maximum incubation period—the longest time it can take between when a person is exposed to the virus and when they develop symptoms.

The CDC defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The West Texas outbreak has been linked to cases in neighboring states, Mexico, and Canada.

While the Texas outbreak has ended, measles cases are still being reported elsewhere in the country. According to the CDC, 40 other states have reported cases, and a total of 32 US outbreaks have been reported in 2025, compared with 16 outbreaks in 2024.

The ongoing outbreaks put the country’s measles elimination status at risk. The designation means there is no ongoing domestic spread of measles for longer than 12 months. The US achieved that status in 2000 after years of increasing vaccination rates but almost lost it in 2019, when measles cases swept through undervaccinated Orthodox Jewish communities in New York for much of the year.

As vaccination rates continue to decline in the US, public health researchers warn that outbreaks of measles and other diseases are likely. One recent peer-reviewed paper found that at current state-level vaccination rates, measles could reestablish itself and become endemic again within the next two decades.

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August 19, 2025 0 comments