Hailey Welch, better known as the “Hawk Tuah girl,” is facing immense backlash online after launching her own cryptocurrency.
The meme coin, dubbed “HAWK,” was first announced by the 22-year-old influencer on Nov. 26 and became available for purchase on Wednesday.
“Hawk is live!!!” Welch excitedly said in a video posted to X.
But the coin, which Welch promised wasn’t “just a cash grab,” has proven to be highly volatile.
Hawk Tuah Girl’s crypto coin plummets
After launching at a price of $0.005492, HAWK saw a meteoric 900% rise in value. Within hours, however, the coin nosedived by approximately 91%, according to the Crypto Times.
Analysts say snipers, individuals or bots that utilize a trading strategy to capitalize on newly launched coins by conducting trades at high speeds, were largely to blame for the price dip.
“Onchain data shows that some snipers managed to benefit the most with selling over 135 million HAWK tokens at the right time and profiting over $1.3 million from single trade,” the Crypto Times wrote.
But others claim that 10 insiders close to Welch owned the majority of the coins to begin with and began selling them off not long after launch.
During an X Spaces event held by Welch on Wednesday, the cryptocurrency journalist and YouTuber Coffeezilla, who is best known for investigating online scams, accused the influencer and her team of insider trading.
In response, Welch denied that anyone on her team had sold their tokens. The influencer also shared a copy and pasted message from someone on her team to X repeating the denial.
“Team hasn’t sold one token and not 1 [key opinion leader] was given 1 free token We tried to stop snipers as best we could through high fee’s in the start of launch on @MeteoraAG,” she wrote.
But analysis of the blockchain, as pointed out by many online, appears to show the opposite.
Welch’s post was later hit with a Community Note that stated: “Hailey is lying and will likely have to ‘talk tuah’ judge about this.”
A Community Note on another of Welch’s tweets also said that “The Update Authority of this token is holding a large portion of total supply” meaning the creators of the coin kept most of it, contradicting Welch’s denial.
Some online even claim to have reported Welch to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency that enforces laws against market manipulation.
“Just filed my report against @HalieyWelchX and the $HAWK team for rugging investors,” a user named Scooter said. “Here’s the link below to file a complaint.”
Welch has not posted to X since hosting her Spaces event on Wednesday. And while it’s unclear that any legal issues will actually ensue, many online appear convinced that the Hawk Tuah girl may soon have her hands full.
“Hawk Tuah is going to have to Talk Tuah a parole officer soon,” joked one.
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