Hailey Welch, the web social media influencer, popularly often called the “Hawk Tuah lady,” stated that the implosion of the “HAWK” memecoin, which she promoted in 2024, and the following social backlash “traumatized” her.
“I acquired talked into doing one thing that I did not know something about, actually, however you have to be actually cautious what you place your title on,” Welsh advised Andrew Callaghan of the Channel 5 YouTube channel on Friday.
Welsh stated she absolutely cooperated with a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe in 2025, which cleared her of any wrongdoing, and that she didn’t possess any of the funds from the memecoin launch, nor did she have the technical experience to launch the coin.
She added that the whole quantity misplaced by “actual folks” within the botched memecoin launch was not important, together with her lawyer estimating the whole greenback quantity misplaced by retail traders at about $200,000.
Regardless of this, Welsh stated she obtained loss of life threats and tried to maintain a low profile for months after the incident, which took a toll on her psychological well being. She stated:
“I used to be beginning to get loss of life threats and every thing else. Folks telling me I owe all of them this cash, and I am like, ‘I did not do that.’ I am sitting right here, and I am the one getting hit for this. It is tough. It is a kind of issues the place in case you come out of the home, you place your head down.”
Nonetheless, not everybody was satisfied by Welsh’s feedback. “Nobody ought to really feel unhealthy for the ‘trauma,’” onchain sleuth ZachXBT stated.
“She begins posting about meme cash. The whole lot of [crypto Twitter] tells her ‘don’t launch a token.’ She launches a memecoin anyway, and after, she blames companions and disappears off social media, with followers shedding funds,” he added.
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The HAWK memecoin crashes and burns shortly after arrival
The HAWK memecoin launched in December 2024 and surged to a market capitalization of over $490 million mere hours after going dwell.
Hawk collapsed by over 91% the next day, falling to a market cap of about $41 million, and was broadly characterised as a rug pull.
In December 2024, an investor lawsuit was filed in opposition to the workforce and entities that created and managed the memecoin launch, however not Welsh, alleging that the entities offered unregistered securities.
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