Haliey ‘Hawk Tuah’ Welch insists she had no idea about crypto $HAWK scam and how meme coins worked as she breaks her silence months after investors losing their shirts as the former internet meme seeks to re-kindle her profitable ‘love affair’ with the public. But will the public bite?
Tennessee woman, Hailey Welch aka Hawk Tuah Girl, who seemingly out of nowhere became a national icon eyesore late last year after revealing her preference for a spicy sex act has re-surfaced after going into hiding after a crypto currency meme bearing her name and image led to investors going belly up.
Welch, presumably hoping to re-invent regurgitate her 5 minutes of fame and somehow stay relevant after becoming the ire of investors who lost their shirts has after months of hunkering down and staying silent has chosen to address the public.
‘I couldn’t tell you how crypto worked the day that coin launched,’ she said on her podcast Talking Tuah, speaking for the first time about the scandal which threatened to send her back to obscurity.
‘I had no idea. I don’t know. So that screwed me,’ the former internet meme sensation added.
The statements come after Welch abruptly stopping her podcast in December 2024 after the digital coin she backed, $HAWK, briefly soared then crashed.
The coin reached a market capitalization of $500 million before becoming worthless in a matter of hours, losing money for almost everyone who invested in it. The launch then became subject to investigations by the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission, during which time Welch’s legal team told her to stop broadcasting.
Welch — who initially went viral last year after she used the term ‘hawk tuah’ to describe a sex act in an ‘on the street’ interview outside a nightclub — was cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to the meme coin and says she didn’t receive any profits from it.
‘I got paid a marketing fee,’ she said. ‘That’s all I made. I did not make a dime from the coin itself.’
The 22 year old also told followers she feels bad for anyone who got scammed.
‘It makes me feel really bad that they trusted me, and I led them to something that I did not have enough knowledge about. I did not have enough knowledge about crypto to be getting involved with it. And I knew that, but I got talked into it, and I trusted the wrong people.’
Which is backhand talk, for ‘in America, the public will almost believe anything and anyone if it’s shiny, moves fast, is a non-stop media machination, promises the world and is photogenic.’ Which Welch with her sudden internet fame instantly measured up to.
Welch during the program also disclosed she wasn’t allowed to disclose the name of the person who allegedly hoodwinked her into putting her name to the failed coin.
However, a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of investors in the coin in New York named Clinton So as the person who launched the coin and social media influencer Alex Larson Schultz as promoting it online. Both are defendants in the case, which is ongoing.
A spokesperson for a company associated with the defendants told Bloomberg news they are ‘confident that we have done nothing wrong.’
Welch said she spent all the money she was paid to promote the coin to deal with the situation.
‘I paid for PR crisis, a new lawyer, stuff like that … Every bit of it went to that. So I’ve really come out with nothing. All that trouble for nothing.’
She also talked about how after the coin’s drop she received a barrage of abuse both online and in person, explaining that she feared getting shot along with receiving a message from someone who threatened to ‘chop me up and feed me to his dog.’
Along with abuse, Welch lost her star lustre with the public, with the heavens ceasing to rain merchandize deals, marketing ploys and branding deals (nevermind lucrative podcast shows) bearing her name and image. Which might explain her once again re-appearing in the public sphere and trying her lucky hand one more time…
Welch also spoke of being ‘interrogated’ (one would hope…) by the FBI following the sham meme coin’s pump and dump scheme burning investors.
Explained Welch, ‘They interrogated me, asking me questions and everything else related to crypto, all the people on my phone that I’ve talked to about crypto. They went through my phone. So they cleared me. And then the SEC picked it up … they wanted my phone.’
Welch insists she gave investors ‘everything’ they wanted and is now in the clear.
‘It was definitely scary, but at the end of the day … I was cleared and wasn’t named in the lawsuit. Legally, I wasn’t in any trouble.’
‘But,’ she added, ‘it was a big mess.’
While Welch may be ‘in the clear’ with investigators, it remained unclear if the former factory worker who rose to prominence off risque comments and a sly wink and solid profile angles and a nifty low cut dress will once again be welcomed back by the public. Not just for her own sake, but for her lawyers, publicists and producers and well oiled machine backing her and hanging off her and the notion hope that the public can be fooled one more time…
