Haliey Welch is a well-liked web persona often called Hawk Tuah Lady who has been embroiled in controversy after launching her meme coin HAWK on the Solana blockchain.

The speedy rise and fall of this token has drawn sharp criticism from the cryptocurrency neighborhood, with accusations of unethical practices that might entice regulatory enchantment.

hawk meme coin

On December 4th, Memecoin debuted on the Solana blockchain to a lot acclaim and inside minutes skyrocketed to a market cap of $500 million, solely to plummet to $60 million quickly after.

This erratic efficiency has left many buyers outraged, with the token being bought in a pump-and-dump scheme (the place malicious builders revenue from artificially inflated costs earlier than abandoning the mission). Hypothesis has elevated that it could have been designed as a tactic to realize

Bubblemaps' blockchain evaluation reveals extra worrying particulars about HAWK's launch. In accordance with the corporate, virtually 96% of the token provide was reportedly managed by insider wallets. Such concentrated holdings are sometimes related to market manipulation, additional rising skepticism concerning the token's legitimacy.

At X Areas, hosted by the mission's crew, on-chain researcher Coffeezilla accused Welch and his crew of insider buying and selling. He mentioned:

“You guys revamped $1 million in charges whereas the followers suffered. There have been snipers, however there have been additionally insider transactions tied on to creator accounts.”

HAWK's state of affairs was paying homage to the earlier movie star token launch at Solana, which failed. Earlier this 12 months, a number of artists and influencers issued tokens in a short-lived pattern, however many of those belongings misplaced almost all their worth inside hours or days.

Critics argue that the HAWK token follows the same trajectory, highlighting the dangers of investing in unproven celebrity-endorsed tokens.

authorized implications

The token collapse sparked outrage throughout social media, with some customers reporting the incident to regulators.

In the meantime, a number of buyers declare to have filed complaints with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), and legislation corporations are offering authorized help to buyers who suffered losses. One agency, Berwick Legislation Agency, publicly inspired aggrieved events to come back ahead and contemplate redress choices.

Including to the uproar, members of the crypto neighborhood created a satirical token referred to as “Straight Tuah Jail,” insinuating that Welch ought to be held accountable for the token’s failure. These developments recommend that Welch and his crew could quickly face authorized hassle.

Welch's response

In his personal protection, Welch denied any wrongdoing in a Dec. 5 submit on He mentioned he had not.

Welch defined that he launched HAWK utilizing Meteora, a decentralized liquidity protocol, to thwart snipers. she wrote:

“The crew hadn't bought a single token but, and never a single KOL had been given a single free token. At launch, we paid excessive charges to promote as many snipers as doable. I attempted to stop it.”

Over Right here, a platform that’s collaborating with Welch on its launch, echoed her remarks. They clarified that Tokenomics was designed with transparency in thoughts and that Welch's crew will not be promoting tokens.

Additionally they famous that her crew's 10% token allocation is locked in for one 12 months and topic to a three-year vesting schedule.

Regardless of these assurances, this controversy raises questions concerning the dangers related to celebrity-backed crypto initiatives.