Online personality Hawk Tuah girl faces backlash over cryptocurrency collapse

Haliey Welch, widely recognized as the individual behind the viral “Hawk Tuah” meme, is encountering criticism following the significant drop in value of her recently launched cryptocurrency. Her “Hawk” digital coin achieved a market capitalization of $490m shortly after its release on Wednesday, only to abruptly lose over 95% of its value within a few hours. This event has prompted some, including YouTube cryptocurrency investigator Coffeezilla, to accuse Ms. Welch of defrauding investors through a “pump and dump” scheme—a practice where those associated with a coin inflate its price before launch, then sell their holdings for profit. Ms. Welch has denied claims that her team sold any of the tokens they possessed. The BBC has reached out to Ms. Welch’s representatives for comment. “Team hasn’t sold one token,” she stated in a duplicated post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. She further mentioned that no “KOL” (key opinion leaders) received free tokens. Ms. Welch had previously distributed complimentary Hawk tokens to some fans across social media platforms prior to the launch. Hawk was introduced on the Solana blockchain around 22:00 GMT on Wednesday, with its market capitalization quickly ascending to a peak of $490m. However, it sharply declined from this high to approximately $60m just 20 minutes later. Fans and investors have accused Ms. Welch and her team of “misleading” and “betraying” them, suggesting the launch constituted a “rug pull”—a scenario where cryptocurrency promoters attract buyers, then cease trading activity and abscond with the funds generated from sales. A community note on Ms. Welch’s X post disputes her explanation, asserting that her team had been selling their Hawk coins since the launch. Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, also alleged that Hawk provided an advantage to “insiders.” “Unfortunately with situations like this, they’re not targeting crypto bros, they’re mostly targeting actual fans who have never been involved in the crypto space before,” he remarked in a video that has garnered over 1.4 million views. He accused Ms. Welch’s team of “profiting from a rug pull.” “These people were unwilling to take any accountability” of the “Hawk Tuah scam”, he claimed, after sharing a clip of him speaking to some of the people behind the cryptocurrency. Ms. Welch’s post on X claimed that her team attempted to deter so-called “snipers”—individuals who rapidly buy and sell cryptocurrencies to capitalize on price discrepancies, sometimes utilizing automated trading tools—by implementing higher fees on one exchange. The team behind the cryptocurrency, OverHere, has dismissed other allegations regarding the launch in an X post. It emphasized that “Haliey’s Team has sold absolutely no tokens whatsoever”. Meme coins like this have experienced a surge in popularity due to their humorous and inexpensive appeal to investors. They are often perceived as less risky than more prominent crypto assets such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, yet they carry the same inherent dangers, frequently offering no protection for those who lose money on them. Carol Alexander, a professor of finance at Sussex University, informed the BBC on Thursday that while more young people are investing in meme coins, many of them are losing money. Several celebrities and influencers who have ventured into the crypto market have encountered similar negative reactions. In 2021, Kim Kardashian was fined $1.26m by US regulators for failing to disclose that she had been compensated to promote a cryptocurrency scheme named EthereumMax. More recently, YouTuber Logan Paul was accused of misleading fans by endorsing crypto coins or investments without revealing his own financial interest in them. Known online as the “Hawk Tuah girl,” Ms. Welch became a viral sensation after uttering the onomatopoeia “hawk tuah”—mimicking the sound of someone spitting—during an interview in June. This propelled the 22-year-old, from Belfast, Tennessee, into an overnight internet phenomenon. She accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers across various social platforms and launched her own merchandise and a podcast titled “Talk Tuah.” Her manager told the Hollywood Reporter in July that she was unique in not having sought internet fame, having been off social media for mental health reasons for several months before appearing in the now-viral “Hawk Tuah” video. Rolling Stone has compared her humorous, small-town persona to a “Gen Z Dolly Parton.” Ms. Welch told outlet TMZ ahead of Hawk’s launch on Wednesday that she launched it to combat “a bunch of imposters” who were pretending to be her and selling their own coins. “It’s a really good way to get all my fans and community to interact and come together,” she said.