Hawk Tuah Girl Defends Meme Coin Amid 90% Drop After Launch

22-year-old Haliey Welch, also known as Hawk Tuah girl, is facing controversy Thursday after the launch of her $HAWK coin, which sparked concerns about a pump-and-dump scheme.

Hawk Tuah Girl Haliey Welch’s Disastrous Crypto Launch

According to reports, $HAWK’s market cap ballooned to $490 million before swiftly plunging 91% shortly following its launch on Wednesday, December 4.

Blockchain data firm Bubble Maps shows that upwards of an estimated 80% of all wallets and snipers were controlled by insiders, skewing the token’s value.

“We tried to stop snipers as best we could through high fee’s in the start of launch on @MeteoraAG,” Welch said in a Thursday X post. “Fee’s have now been dropped.”

Following the cryptocurrency’s stunning collapse, purchasers of $HAWK soon took to social media to share their woes over the alleged pump-and-dump scheme.

“My $35,000 that I purchased of $Hawk is now $2,000 after 10 minutes of buying,” one X user shared Wednesday, claiming they used their children’s college funds to invest in the coin. “I am a huge fan of Hawk Tuah, but you took my life savings.”

“I’m down around $20,000 right now on the $HAWK token,” posted another. “I really hope that @HalieyWelchX can provide us with some roadmap updates or something.”

“I for one am completely shocked and surprised by the way this turned out,” he added. “Please send help asap.”

One user shared a screenshot of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) website and corresponding complaint line, effectively urging fellow scammed investors to file a complaint with the federal regulator.

$HAWK Coin Creators Push Back On Rug Pull Allegations

OverHere, the team behind Welch’s token pushed back on claims in a late Wednesday post to X.

“Hailey’s Team has sold absolutely no tokens whatsoever,” they said. “Haliey’s Team has 10% allocation which is locked for 1 year and vested over 3 years.”

“The rest of the tokens are distributed into the different wallets as according to the tokenomics,” OverHere added, saying the company would provide a more detailed overview of the situation at a later date.

Pump-and-dump schemes, in which a small cluster of insiders illegitimately inflate a token’s value, have long been a hallmark of celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrencies and meme coins.

A 2023 report from blockchain analytics company Chainalysis found that nearly 25% of new tokens launched in the 2022 bear market experienced a price decline indicative of a pump-and-dump scheme.

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