YAM's Market Cap Falls From $60M to Zero in 35 Minutes

Two-day-old DeFi project YAM has seen its market cap evaporate in under an hour as a desperate last-minute attempt to fix a bug in the code ultimately failed.

• Data from price site CoinGecko shows the total value of YAM collapsed from roughly $60 million at 07:40 UTC to $0 by 08:15 – barely 35 minutes later.
• The price of YAM tokens, which peaked at roughly $167 at 17:30 UTC, had spiraled down to barely $14 at just before 08:00.
• Having only launched Tuesday, YAM was a yield farming protocol where tokens were intended to keep parity with the U.S. dollar through loosening or contracting supply.
• Its relative newness, though, meant the code hadn't been properly audited; a bug was soon discovered that effectively meant the protocol would keep printing "dud" YAM tokens that would prevent token holders from making any governance decisions.
• A last-minute attempt to save the protocol ultimately failed and co-founder Brock Elmore pronounced the project dead at 08:01 UTC.
• Yam's market cap went to zero moments later.
• The project announced a plan to migrate to YAM 2.0 just before press time.
• Crypto exchange Gate.io announced it will reinstate deposits, withdrawals for YAM, with trading set to resume at 14:30 UTC.

See also: Deposits in ‘Monetary Experiment’ Meme Token YAM Break $460M

UPDATE (Aug. 13, 10:45 UTC): This article has been updated to include the Gate.io announcement.