Recently, Haliey Welch, popularly known as ‘Hawk Tuah girl’, has been embroiled in a cryptocurrency controversy that has unfolded over the past few months. Initially, she was quite outspoken regarding the matter, but has since become silent.
Welch gained fame in June 2024 during a street interview where she uttered the phrase ‘hawk tuah spit on that thang’. Her rising popularity attracted the attention of a group of cryptocurrency experts, who later created a meme coin named ‘$HAWK token’ in her honor.
In a leaked podcast episode with YouTuber FaZe Banks, Welch addressed the alleged cryptocurrency scam and was moved to tears as she discussed it.
For context, let’s break down the scandal’s details.
On December 4, within a timespan of less than 20 minutes, the value of her cryptocurrency meme coin plummeted by nearly $450 million.
Supporters reported losing their entire life savings in a timeframe shorter than an episode of The Simpsons. Welch and the ‘$HAWK token’ creators have been accused of orchestrating a ‘rug pull’.
A ‘rug pull’ is a term referring to when cryptocurrency creators sell off their holdings, causing the value to crash, leaving investors with devalued coins.
The value of Welch’s cryptocurrency dropped from around $490 million to just $41 million, with some reports claiming it lost over 95 percent of its value on the launch day.
During the podcast, Welch expressed gratitude to her loyal fans, saying, “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 with, “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.”
Welch elaborated, “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 leak, Banks publicly criticized Welch’s team.
He took to Twitter, stating: “These incompetent r*****s leaked and/ or inside traded the token. We noticed a random spike in volume on the coin 2/2 along with random messages asking us if we did the podcast. Very clearly her team was not as solid as they claimed to be. They completely blew it and we called the episode off right then and there.
“Now today, the episode ‘randomly’ gets leaked. The price of $HAWK is pumping and they completely f***ing fumbled the bag, yet again. What a f***ing mess. Poor girl, it’s a wonder how she found herself in this position in the first place.
“Now @HalieyWelchX I’m going to speak to you direct and say the exact same thing I said to you on spaces that night. Fire everybody, your teams f***ing r*****ed.”