Online social media influencer Hailey Welsh, popularly known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl”, said the collapse of the meme coin HAWK, which she promoted, in 2024, and the ensuing social backlash “shocked” her.
“I was talked into doing something I didn’t really know anything about, but you have to be really careful about what you put your name on,” Welsh told Channel 5’s YouTuber Andrew Callaghan on Friday.
Welch said she fully cooperated with the FBI investigation in 2025, which cleared her of any wrongdoing, and that she did not own any of the funds generated from the memecoin launch, nor did she have the technical expertise to launch the coin.
She added that the total amount lost by “real people” in the failed memecoin issue was not large, with her lawyer estimating the total dollar amount lost by retail investors at about $200,000.
Despite this, Welch said she received death threats and tried to stay out of the spotlight for several months after the incident, which negatively affected her mental health. She said:
“I started getting death threats and everything else. People are telling me I owe them all this money, and I’m like, ‘I didn’t do this.’ I’m sitting here, and I’m the one who’s going to get beaten up over this. It’s tough. It’s one of those things where if you walk out of the house, you put your head on the ground.”
However, not everyone was convinced by Wells’ comments. “No one should feel bad about the ‘shock,’” said Onchain investigator ZachXBT.
“I started posting about the coin meme. All in all [crypto Twitter] “Don’t release a token,” he tells her. He added that she launched memecoin anyway, and after that, she blamed the partners and disappeared from social media, with followers losing money.
Related to: Japanese Prime Minister Takaishi disavows ‘Sanae Token’ after memecoin reaches peak of $28 million
The HAWK memecoin crashes and burns shortly after its arrival
The HAWK memecoin was launched in December 2024 and its market capitalization rose to over $490 million just hours after its launch.
Hawk’s stock collapsed more than 91% the next day, falling to a market cap of about $41 million, and was widely described as a rug being pulled out.
In December 2024, a lawsuit was filed against the team and the entities that created and managed the memecoin launch, but not against Wells, alleging that the entities sold unregistered securities.
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