Haliey Welch, known as the Hawk Tuah girl, disclosed that her boyfriend was among the supporters who lost their ‘life savings’ following their investment in her cryptocurrency venture.
Welch gained widespread attention last year after she provided a particularly explicit response to the question, ‘what makes a guy go crazy in bed?’ during a street interview, which quickly went viral and gave her the nickname.
In the wake of her newfound fame, Haliey ventured into the cryptocurrency space by launching the $Hawk memecoin.
However, the venture faced challenges as it lost 90% of its value within hours of its launch.
The cryptocurrency, reportedly not registered with The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), initially reached a market cap of $490 million shortly after it was introduced, according to Crypto Times.
Unfortunately, it rapidly declined to just $41 million, resulting in financial losses for many of her followers.
This led to accusations from investors that Haliey orchestrated a rug pull, a deceptive tactic where creators sell off their holdings, causing a dramatic drop in value and leaving investors with worthless coins.
Some disillusioned fans, feeling misled, have initiated legal actions against the coin’s creators.
Haliey recently revealed that her boyfriend was one of the investors affected by the fallout.
During a ‘leaked’ episode of Talk Tuah with FaZe Clan founder Banks, Haliey explained the situation, mentioning that her partner, Pookie, also known as Kelby Blackwell, suffered financial loss.
“Pookie lost money too,” she stated.
“He said, ‘How you going to take my money’? He still gives me s**t all the time, he says, ‘I wish I had my $300 back.'”
Haliey elaborated on the incident, displaying visible emotion.
She commented: “I want to start by saying thank you to all my true fans and all the people that actually watch my stuff and they keep up with me. We’re trying to sort out all the pieces and stuff to, like, get all this figured out and make everything right. Oh my God, I’m gonna cry.”
Banks responded: “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.”
Haliey continued: “Well, so basically how this idea got brought to me, it was supposed to be, like, a more, they call it a long term coin. And the guy that ran the account, he was like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna change, like, the way everybody thinks of crypto’.
“Crypto is gonna be a good place. And I feel really bad for all the people that got affected by it, and it just didn’t go the way I planned. And all the money out of this episode is getting donated to all the animals that have been affected by the fires up here.”
Following the episode’s release, Banks addressed the situation on social media, stating: “So in an attempt to hear Haliey Welch’s side of the Crypto scam story, I agreed to do her first podcast back.
“I had heavy stipulations including; Not allowing markets to be manipulated by leaking this episode’s existence before a resolution was found.
“Her team finding a REAL solution regarding the money she made, where that should go and what to do with the $HAWK project moving forward.
“These were nonstarters and we were told this episode would only ever see the light of day if we explicitly green lit it.”