Since becoming a viral sensation this summer thanks to a street interview where she candidly offered graphic sex advice, Haliey Welch, better known as “Hawk Tuah Girl,” has built a niche for herself as an influencer. Beyond her newfound fame, Welch launched a podcast, an animal charity, and embraced a more prominent online presence. Her journey into the influencer sphere has included endorsements ranging from X (formerly Twitter) to Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck.
Recently, Welch ventured into cryptocurrency, a move seemingly aligned with her self-proclaimed title, “Queen of Memes.” With her interest in Bitcoin and Dogecoin (a meme-inspired crypto asset boosted by Musk’s enthusiasm), Welch launched her own meme coin, $HAWK, on the Solana blockchain on Wednesday. Promising compliance with securities laws and denying it was a cash grab, the coin saw an explosive debut, surging 900% in initial trading and achieving a market capitalization of nearly $500 million.
However, the celebration was short-lived. Within hours, $HAWK’s value plummeted by 95%, wiping out retail investors and sparking outrage across the crypto community. Accusations began swirling that $HAWK was a pump-and-dump scheme—a tactic where developers hype a crypto asset to inflate its price before dumping their holdings, leaving other investors with worthless tokens.
Blockchain data analysts uncovered alarming trends. A single wallet captured 17.5% of the $HAWK supply and flipped it for $1.3 million in just 90 minutes. Moreover, blockchain analysis from Bubblemaps revealed that 96% of $HAWK tokens were concentrated in a small cluster of interrelated wallets, raising suspicions of coordinated insider trading.
As the crypto industry grapples with the fallout, Welch and her advisers face mounting scrutiny. Was $HAWK a genuine attempt to create a community-driven meme coin, or was it always a predatory scheme designed to exploit her fame?
This dramatic rise and fall serve as a stark warning about the risks of speculative crypto investments, especially those tied to celebrity endorsements. Whether Welch’s brand can recover remains uncertain, but for the investors left in the lurch, $HAWK has become a bitter lesson in the volatile world of cryptocurrency.
