Haliey Welch, better known as the viral ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’, is facing criticism after her newly launched cryptocurrency crashed within hours of hitting the market.
The social media sensation unveiled her digital coin ‘Hawk’ on Wednesday.
It surged to a market capitalisation of nearly $500 million before suddenly losing more than 95% of its value in hours.
The rapid plunge prompted some, including YouTuber and crypto journalist Stephen Findeisen, who has millions of followers to his Coffeezilla pages, to accuse Welch of scamming investors.
‘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 said in a video viewed more than 1.4 million times.
He accused Welch of profiting from ‘rug pulling’, when a coin’s creators drive up its price before launch and then sell it for a profit, leaving other investors with devalued tokens after prices plummet.
Welch denied allegations her team had sold any of their tokens and blamed ‘snipers’ – bots programmed to buy tokens and sell when prices surge – for hammering the market cap.
‘Team hasn’t sold one token,’ she wrote on X on Wednesday, adding that no ‘KOL’ (key opinion leaders) or influential figures who hyped up the coin were gifted a free token.
The launch of ‘Hawk’ came amid the resurgence of crypto, with Bitcoin recently topping $100,000 for the first time.
Since her infamous interview first appeared in June, Welch has launched Hawk Tuah-themed merchandise and a ‘Talk Tuah’ podcast.
Memecoins like ‘Hawk’, ‘Doge’ and ‘Moodeng’ – yes, after the baby pygmy hippo – are inspired by internet memes and are often viewed as less risky that more high-profile crypto assets.
But their performance can be volatile, fluctuating in line with social media trends.
Welch is not the first celebrity or influencer to face this kind of backlash.
Kim Kardashian was fined more than $1 million in 2021 after failing to disclose she had been paid to post an advert for the EthereumMax crypto scheme.
And YouTuber Logan Paul was recently accused of misleading fans by promoting coins without disclosing his own financial interest in them.
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