The Hawk Tuah Girl's Meme Crypto Coin Was a Bust, and Some People Are Shocked

Few people have capitalized on a viral moment better than the "Hawk Tuah girl," a.k.a. Haliey Welch. After dispensing with some slightly graphic sexual advice in a clip this summer, she launched a podcast and an animal charity and also introduced her own meme cryptocurrency.

In addition to praising Elon Musk and Tesla's Cyber Truck, Haliey has also invested in cryptocurrencies herself. As the queen of memes, it was perhaps unsurprising when she launched $HAWK on a cryptocurrency platform called Solana, promising that it was compliant with all rules and regulations and definitely not just a chance for her to make a quick buck. Turns out, though, that those promises may have been hollow.

If the coin was not really a cash grab, it's clear that those in the crypto space don't believe that. $HAWK made its debut on Dec. 4, and its value skyrocketed by 900 percent in initial trading, briefing making the market capitalization into something close to half a billion dollars. Just as quickly as the value skyrocketed, though, it collapsed, losing 95 percent of its value and wiping out many retail investors in just hours.

As the price of the coin collapsed, reports suggested that those inside of $HAWK had offloaded their stakes in the coin for a huge profit, essentially riding the high of the initial price surge with no plan to make the coin sustainable. Some investors also quickly grabbed a massive percentage of the overall coins available and then sold them off as the price surged, helping to facilitate the collapse in its value.

According to blockchain data analyst Bubblemaps, 96 percent of $HAWK was in a series of related crypto wallets, which suggests that there was a high degree of coordination among investors intending to pump the price and then quickly dump their stake in it.

Following the drop in price, Haliey attempted to allay the fears of retail investors in an X Spaces on Dec. 4, but the event didn't seem to help.

Instead, investors are now filing complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a law firm has already swooped in to offer itself as representation to potential clients. Haliey was mostly silent during the call but chimed in after Stephen Findeisen, who is known on YouTube for his investigations into crypto fraud, spoke.

“This is one of the most miserable, horrible launches I’ve ever seen in my life,” Stephen said. Haliey replied: “OK, then why the f--k are you on?" apparently unaware of how he makes his money.

Most of the call involved $HAWK's crypto group explaining that they hadn't in fact sold their stakes in the company and included a mysterious man who went by the moniker Doc Hollywood.

Stephen concluded his time on the call by saying that $HAWK was an outright "scam." Unless Haliey and her team can prove otherwise, that's a conclusion that many people are likely to come to.