Hayley Welch, known as the viral “Hawk Tuah Girl,” faced backlash after the failed launch of her memecoin $HAWK, which crashed more than 90 percent just hours after hitting the market. Now, the 22-year-old internet personality is being accused of scamming. Investors.
This week, Welch tried to capitalize on his viral fame by launching his own memecoin — a cryptocurrency based on viral memes or pop culture references. Dogecoin and Pepecoin.
Addressing. good luck Ahead of the launch, Welch insisted that his memecoin, dubbed HAWK, “wasn’t just a cash grab.” However, after less than 24 hours, at least one investor is already in place. Filed a complaint With the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
When HAWK launched on the Solana blockchain on Wednesday evening (Dec. 4) at a price of $0.005492, it quickly gained more than 900 percent and amassed a market cap of $490 million. The token price reached $0.00004028. Crypto Times reported, before its market cap plummeted to $60 million, a whopping 91 percent drop in value.
This acceleration was attributed by some to internal wallets and snipers – entities that purchase large amounts of token supply at launch – who reportedly control between 80 and 90 percent of HAWK’s supply. does According to Coin Telegraphone wallet managed to buy 17.5% of the memecoin supply, worth $993,000 at the time, and sold it less than two hours later for a profit of $1.3 million.
Many online commentators accused Welch and his team of a “pump and dump” scheme, whereby coins are bought at low prices, heavily promoted to inflate their value. , and then often sold by company insiders.
Welch has denied all allegations of insider trading in a statement on X/Twitter. Post that his team “has not sold a single token nor given 1 free token to 1 KOL.”
“We at @MeteoraAG tried to deter snipers as best we could by charging higher fees at launch,” he wrote. “The fee is now abolished.”
free Welch’s representatives have been contacted for further comment.
Welch’s manager, Jonny Forster, said earlier. good luck that Welch would own 10 percent of the HAWK supply but would not be able to sell it for a year.
“I don’t really see it as a gambling thing,” Welch told the outlet. “I think it’s a fun way to communicate with my fans.”
Still, that hasn’t stopped social media users from shedding light. Crypto The conflict
“She’s going to talk to the judge soon,” one person said wrote at X, while another Answered: “It just took $1M out of our pockets.”
Welch gained viral fame as “The Hawk Tuah Girl” in June, thanks to a NSFW on-the-street interview posted by YouTubers Tim Dickerson and DeArius Marlow. Since then, Welch signed with an agent and started his own podcast, Talk Tuah.