Haliey Welch, aka Hawk Tuah Girl, became an internet phenomenon thanks to a phrase she managed to capitalize on. She is today accused of scamming her fans with cryptocurrency while investors have filed a complaint.
It’s the story of an internet celebrity who didn’t miss the opportunity to line his pockets thanks to his sudden notoriety. Last June, Haliey Welch, a 22-year-old American, was questioned by Tim & Dee, two YouTubers, during a sidewalk microphone as she was leaving a drunken evening with a friend.
When the videographer asks him what drives a man crazy in bed, his very explicit answer quickly goes viral. She explains in particular how to complete a fellatio in “spitting on his thing”then dropping the expression “Hawk Tuah” as an onomatopoeia of spit. Viewed more than 9 million times on social networks, the sequence transformed it into an internet phenomenon and Haliey Welch became an influencer under the name “Hawk Tuah Girl”.
Faced with this new popularity, she decides to quit her job and hires an agent to manage her new image as a social media star. She therefore strived to sustain her buzz by launching several concepts. She notably launched a weekly podcast called “Talk Tuah”, a dating site for $7 per week, derivative products and, recently, a cryptocurrency project.
Its cryptocurrency collapses, it disappears from social networks
Indeed, on December 4, the young woman launched “$HAWK”, which are memecoins, in other words cryptocurrencies inspired by popular memes on the internet. Speaking to Fortune magazine, Haliey Welch affirmed that it was not an operation to make money at the expense of investors.
Thus, the value of its cryptocurrency skyrocketed to reach a market capitalization of $490 million within fifteen minutes of its launch. Only a few hours later, the value collapsed by 96%, leaving the initial investors in the red.
Photo credit: Frank Franklin II/AP/SIPA
The latter accuse the influencer of having scammed them. A suspicion that grew in the following days since Haliey Welch simply disappeared from social networks. It’s been two weeks since she gave any sign of life.
The aggrieved investors accuse him of having set up a “rug pull” operation. This is a maneuver by the creator of the currency which consists of investing in its own currency to artificially inflate the value of the tokens before withdrawing its liquidity, leaving investors with tokens without any value.
Photo credit: Screenshot X / FearedBuck
A $50 million scam?
In total, Internet users accuse the “Hawk Tuah Girl” of having earned more than 50 million dollars thanks to her scam. Some say they are totally cheated by this scam:
“I’m a huge fan of Hawk Tuah, but you took all my savings. I bought your $Hawk piece that you promoted with my kids’ college fund”
“You didn’t say you were going to buy 97% of the shares and sell them almost immediately for a big profit.”
According to Rolling Stone, investors have already filed complaints with the American stock market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission. For her part, Haliey Welch initially denied the accusations via a discussion on X Spaces, before disappearing from social networks.
Photo credit: Photo credit: Screenshot X / nursexxl
The OverHere agency, in charge of launching the currency bearing the image of Hawk Tuah Girl, ensures that Haliey’s team has sold absolutely no tokens. She also promises “more explanations to come” regarding the operation. However, investors do not necessarily want explanations but a real return on their investment.
