Hailey Welch Goes AWOL After Failed Hawk Tuah Token Launch

The HAWK token has lost more than 95% of its value after going live last week.

Dec 10, 2024, 10:51 a.m. UTC

Viral internet personality Hailey Welch, also known as the "Hawk Tuah" girl, has been silent on social media following last week's controversial introduction of a memecoin that has since plummeted by more than 95%.

The HAWK token initially spiked to a $500 million market cap before rapidly tumbling as heavy selling pressure from early investors overwhelmed demand from newcomers. The market cap is now hovering around $20 million and trading volume is less than $500,000 over the past 24-hours.

The debut led to widespread criticism, culminating in a YouTube video by internet sleuth Coffeezilla dubbed "exposing the hawk tuah scam."

In response to scrutiny, Welch hosted an X Spaces call on Thursday that featured members of the overHere team, the company behind the memecoin launch.

The call abruptly ended following a heated debate when Welch said: "I'm going to bed, I'll speak to y'all in the morning." She has not posted any updates since.

Welch's manager and the team behind the memecoin are yet to respond to numerous CoinDesk requests for comment.

Welch's lawyer responded to Coffeezilla by stating that "50% of the net proceeds was from the allocation of tokens." And that "out of her 50% she would have to pay her non-crypto team too, so in reality, she would likely only hold 3.5% of the tokens withdrawn (if at all) on the above schedule.”

The token is now in a precarious death spiral as beleaguered investors, of whom there are 14,355 official holders, continue to sell into the rapidly dwindling $2 million pool of liquidity.

Blockchain data shows that one wallet made $365,000 in profit over 23 transactions on the day HAWK was launched whilst another made $65,000. The vast majority of investors who bought on the open market are at a substantial loss.

Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in April 2022. Before joining CoinDesk, Knight was the Chief Reporter at Coin Rivet for three years. Having graduated with a journalism degree from Birmingham City University, Knight went on to work at various sports publications before diving into the world of Bitcoin in 2014. He does not have any crypto holdings.