The $HAWK scandal plot thickened on Sunday when viral internet sensation Haliey Welch—more commonly known as the Hawk Tuah Girl—bowed out of an X Spaces session held by YouTuber Voidzilla as she was being questioned over the details of her cryptocurrency.
Flustered, the 22-year-old abruptly ended the conversation and session by declaring, “Hi guys! I hate to interrupt you Nick, but, hello there, but, anyhoo I’m going to go to bed and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” The latter part of her statement immediately became a catchphrase across social media and the audio began trending across TikTok.
Welch last week attempted to launch her own “meme coin”, a form of cryptocurrency inspired by internet memes and trends. Shortly after $HAWK was launched on blockchain platform Solana on Wednesday, its value tanked, eliciting accusations of it being a “pump and dump” scam and “rug pull.”
“Anyhoo I’m going to go to bed and I’ll see you guys tomorrow”
Welch’s premature departure evoked amused reactions as users across social media commented on her voice, particularly its resemblance to Bart Simpson’s voice, with some speculating she sounded strange because she was strained and deeply uncomfortable.
@chente_mixed_it #fyp #gaming #cod #fortnite ♬ im gonna go to bed – AK 🍒
@allisonk8lyn “wE’rE bUiLdInG”🤦🏻♀️ crazy work @Hay_welch…#hawktuah #crypto #memecoin #rugpull #cryptotok #fyp #foryou #roadto1k ♬ im gonna go to bed – AK 🍒
Who is Haliey Welch?
Welch is an ex-spring factory worker living in Belfast, Tennessee with her grandmother. On June 9, 2024, she was thrust into the limelight when a YouTuber approached her and her friends in Nashville during CMA Fest.
The host asked Welch, “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” Welch replied, “You gotta give ’em that hawk tuah, and spit on that thang, you get me?” before demonstrating the move for the YouTuber. The clip immediately went viral, propelling Welch into near-instant online stardom.
At first, Welch was mortified. “The first week of it, I was so embarrassed,” she said in an interview with The Tennessean. “I wouldn’t come out of my house. I went to work, but that’s about it. Other than that, I didn’t go anywhere. But I went from being embarrassed to living in the moment.”
But live in the moment she did: embarking on multiple ventures, including the creation of her own company and hosting and producing a podcast called Talk Tuah.
How did the Hawk Tuah girl get into crypto?
Due to the rise in popularity and relevance of cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Elon Musk’s Dogecoin, Welch decided to test her own social currency by making…currency. More specifically, Welch launched a memecoin appropriately titled $HAWK.
Ahead of its launch, Welch distributed free $HAWK tokens to fans across social media, officially releasing the currency on Dec. 4, 2024, (and insisting, even then, that it was not a cash grab).
$HAWK quickly soared to an all-time high of $0.00004028, achieving a market capitalization of $500 million, according to TechTimes, before it all came crashing down less than 20 minutes later.
According to DexScreener, the memecoin’s market capitalization plummeted to just $25 million in a matter of hours. Accusations flew from users and crypto creators who flagged Welch’s memecoin as a scam; specifically a “pump and dump” scheme that has been wildly prevalent across markets. “Pump and dumps,” (also known as “rug pulls”) are when investors inflate a product’s valuation before and during its launch, only to sell it near-immediately after its release knowing its value will quickly drop.
Yahoo! News reports that a number of investors have already filed complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and are blasting Welch and her memecoin online.
Meanwhile, Welch and her team have been scrambling to dispel the notion that the meme coin was a scam.
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